





















































































































Copr. 1911, J. C. W. Co. ARE THESE IN YOUR COLLECTION? 

1. Spotted cone. 2. Giant sea star. 3. Rosy coral. 4. Pearly nautilus. 5. Sea urchin. 6. Redear. 7. Giant 
conch. 8. Brain coral. 9. Marlin spike. 10. Trapeze shell. 11. Turk’s cap. 12. Bleeding tooth. 13, Red spot¬ 
ted mitre. 14. Black rock shell. 15. Pearl oyster. 16. White rock shell. 






HAPPY TIMES 
AT HOME 

FOR OUR BOYS AND GIRLS 


AMUSING AND INSTRUCTIVE WAYS OF ENTER¬ 
TAINING THE CHILDREN OF OUR OWN 
LAND AND STORIES ABOUT 
CHILDREN OF OTHER 
LANDS 


By LOGAN MARSHALL 

f 9 

Author of “Myths and Legends of All Nations,” 
Editor of “Fairy Tales of All Nations,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


> > 
> j > 










COPTRIGHT, 1914 
Br L. T. MYERS 



DEC -4 1914 

©CI.A387806 

f 


Contents 


PAGE 

Making Collections. 5 

The Home Carpenter. 8 

Making Friends of the Birds. 11 

Bead Work and Basketry. 13 

The Doll’s Dressmaker. 17 

Artist, Actor, Publisher and Traveler. 22 

Everyday Pastimes . 26 

Parties . 34 

Poems for Recitation. 37 

England’s Sons and Daughters. 44 

Children of Australia and South Africa. 52 

Little Ones of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. 64 

Quaint Little Children of Holland and Belgium. 79 

Child Life in France. 89 

Sturdy German Children. 100 


3 


















4 


CONTENTS 


Boys and Girls of Austria and Hungary. Ill 

Youthful Redskins of North and South America. 124 

Brave Little Mountaineers of Switzerland. 135 

Children of Spain and Portugal. 146 

Native Kaffir Youths and Other Strange Children. 156 

Children of Sunny Italy. 167 

Young Natives of Egypt and the Barbary States. 175 

The Little Turkish and Arabian Children. 188 

The Rich and the Poor of Russia and Poland. 198 

Chinese Boys and Girls. 204 

The Little Children of India. 212 

The Quaint, Brave Youths of Japan. 220 

Little Brown Cousins of the Philippines and Hawaii. . 227 

The Strange Little Eskimos of Alaska. 236 

Boys and Girls of Cuba and Porto Rico. 245 

















Making Collections 


M AKING collections is always good fun, and 
following will afford pastime for many 
tramps through wood and field: 

Butterflies or various insects, mounting each 
carefully and learning the name of each. 

Flowers, finding the name of each from a book. 

Ferns, finding the name of each from a book. 

Leaves, learning the names of common trees. 

, Fruits of trees—button balls, balls of sweet 
gum, acorns, chestnuts, etc. 

Birds’ nests, being careful to take only the 
abandoned nests of last year. 

Pictures of birds you have seen. 

Drawings of flowers, ferns, leaves, etc., 
recognized. 

Minerals, learning the names of different kinds of stone 
you have found and labeling each. 

Shells, learning the names of the animals who once lived 
in them. 

Cocoons, which will open to your amazement in the spring. 
During the long winter days you will be very glad to have 
these collections to remind you of pleasant summer rambles. 


any of the 
delightful 



EOCENE MOL¬ 
LUSC 

you have 


5 




6 


MAKING COLLECTIONS 


And then you will enjoy making books or boxes or cabinets in 
which to keep them. 

If you want your specimens of flowers, ferns and leaves 
to look really nice, it will be necessary to take a little trouble 

in collecting as well as in arranging them. 

Before setting out for the woods and lanes procure some 
sheets of spongy, light-brown paper (such as grocers use) 
about fourteen inches long and nine inches broad; also two 
deal boards, not very thick, and just a little larger than the 
paper, for which they will serve as covers; and lastly, a strap 
to keep paper and covers firmly together. 

Suppose you begin by collecting ferns, as they are the 
easiest to dry. Select the most perfect fronds, not the largest, 
and take care to break them off near their root-stocks. Put 
them into your collecting case carefully. If a stem is too 
long, bend it back near the lowest leaflets of the frond. It is 
best to take two or three fronds of the same kind of fern, so 
that when they are dry the best can be chosen. 

Of course, you will always be on the look-out for new 
specimens, and if you are going away from home on a visit, 
or for your holidays, it is as well to take your collecting case 
with you. Ferns that are rare in one part of the country are 
quite common in another, so that there is no saying what treas¬ 
ures you may find in a new neighborhood. 

When you have gathered and brought home your speci¬ 
mens, the first thing is to dry them. Take them out of the 
case and put them between sheets of fresh'blotting-paper, 
either ordinary white or what is called botanical paper, in this 
way: Place some fronds carefully on a sheet, put three or four 
sheets over them, then more ferns and more paper. On the 
top of the pile put some heavy article, to weigh it down, and 


MAKING COLLECTIONS 


7 


leave them like this for twenty-four hours; then transfer them 
to fresh paper, putting the weight on again. The damp sheets 
can be dried and put aside for further use. After a day or 
two of this treatment you will find your ferns are dry, and 
you can then proceed to arrange them. 

A small scrap-book with plenty of “guards” does very 
well for keeping ferns in. Place two fronds of the same sort 
of fern close together, one showing the under and one the 
upper surface. The under part contains the little seed-cases, 
and you will be surprised to find how these differ in the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of fern, especially if you look at them through 
a magnifying glass. Keep each frond in position with very 
narrow strips of gummed paper, using no more of these than 
are absolutely needed. In the right-hand lower corner of the 
page write the name of the fern, the place where you found 
it, and the month and year. If you are not sure of the name 
write it in pencil until you have either compared it with the 
pictures in a book of ferns, or a friend has told it you. 

Wild flowers should be treated in just the same way, 
only they will take a longer time to dry. If you should find 
an unusual flower pick one of its green 
leaves as well, dry it, and put it beside 
the flower in your book of specimens— 
it will probably help you in finding out 
the name. 

Leaves are either simple or com¬ 
pound ; that is to say, they are either all 
in one or are divided into two or more 
parts, like the horse-chestnut and ash. CHESTNUT LEAF AND BURR 
In arranging these leaves in your book, put the simple ones 
at the beginning and the compound ones at the end—you 



8 


THE HOME CARPENTER 


will find it both interesting and useful to know the difference 
between the two. 


BUTTONS 

“Button, button, who has the button?” 

No doubt you have all played this game. But are you f 
all sure that you know just how very much fun you can get 
out of buttons? They are good as money in playing store, of 
course, and good to fasten clothes together, and splendid dec¬ 
orations for uniforms in playing soldier, but they are also 
worth while for collections. 

Little girls of a generation or two ago had great fun 
gathering together especially odd or beautiful buttons. These 
they would stow away in small boxes or string upon heavy 
cord or ribbon. 

See if your friends will not join you in the occupation 
of making button collections. Have special “spring exhibi¬ 
tions” occasionally. 


The Home Carpenter 


You can easily make the doll’s bureau shown on page 10. 
For it you will need two cigar boxes. Remove the lid of one 
box and the lower end. 

Stand it on one side, first pushing this side in about one 
inch, and nailing it in again. (Small “sprigs,” which you can 
buy at any hardware store, will be best for this thin wood.) 





THE HOME CAUPENTEB, 


9 


The sides are then curved at the bottom with a penknife. 
Small strips of wood nailed to the sides will hold the drawers. 

Drawers and back are easily made by following the 
drawing. Push pins will make beautiful glass knobs. 

TABLE DESK 

This desk any little boy or girl can have with very little 
trouble. Buy a kitchen table, and if it is varnished remove 
the varnish by washing it in a liquid composed of three table¬ 
spoonfuls of soda and a pint of water. 

Next cut the curves, “A,” in the sides, and add the braces, 
“B.” The detail of the brace is shown in Fig. 3. 

On each side of the top of the desk is placed a compart¬ 
ment like Fig. 5, made of half-inch pine fastened with light 
nails. The piece shown in Fig. 4 rests over the top of these 
compartment boxes, extending one inch over the front and 
sides. 

Finish with two coats of mission oak stain, and when the 
second coat is dry polish with wax. 

AUTOMATIC SEE-SAW 

« 

This is a toy which you can make for your little brother 
if you are skilful with your tools. The figures move up and 
down and at the same time descend to the bottom. Once 
there, the toy is turned over, the figures twisted by the pin in 
the center until they are right side up, and then made to drop 
again. 

Make the top and bottom blocks as shown and fasten them 
together by means of thin strips of wood, one on each side. 
These strips can be whittled from an old cigar box. 


10 


THE HOME CARPENTER 



DOLL’S BUREAU, AUTOMATIC SEE-SAW AND TABLE DESK 










































































































MAKING FRIENDS OF THE BIRDS 


11 


Then take a strip of tin nine inches long and bend it as 
shown in the illustration on page 10. For the teeter board 
use a cigar-box strip with a cross slot in the center. Around 
it put another strip of tin with a corresponding slot. (See 

“D”) 

Insert the curved strip of tin through the slot and paste 
the whole to the frame by bending each end over a heavy pin 
as shown in the illustration. 

The figures are cut from light wood and pinned to the 
ends of the teeter board. If made heavier at the feet they 
will remain upright. 


Making Friends of the Birds 


Do you feed the birds in the spring and fall 4 ? If you 
don’t you should do so, as you know birds do not freeze to 
death; they starve to death. There is a great advantage in 
putting out feed and bird baths, as by so doing you not only 
can hold many beautiful birds with you all winter, but when 
spring comes you will not have to enter into competition with 
your neighbor. When the birds come up from the South, if 
they find food and water at your place they will stay with you, 
s and if you have houses up they will say: “These people love 
and will protect us. We will go no farther.” 

Bird baths are almost as essential as food. If you will 
just think it over, where is a bird going to get water 4 ? He is 
afraid of large bodies of water and prefers shallow drinking 
places. 





12 


MAKING FRIENDS GF THE BIRDS 


Do you want to build a bird house? It may be very 
rough and plain; but it must be weather-proof. You may 
cut down a small box that you have at home or get from the 
grocer’s, adding a slanting or arched roof so that the little 
bird’s enemy, the cat, may not rest upon it. Perhaps you 
can copy the style of some bird house you have seen, although 
birds are not at all particular about the appearance of their 
dwellings, so long as they are comfortable. There is nothing 
much better than a simple house fastened to the side of a tree 
from eight to twelve feet above the ground. A broad band of 

zinc around the tree will prevent cats and 
other enemies from climbing up. 

The round hole in the front, which is 
the doorway to Mr. Bird’s house, is best 
made by an auger. It should be about one 
inch in diameter for wrens; about \ l /\. inches 
for bluebirds; and about \]/i inches for 
robins. 

Wrens raise two broods of young each 
year, frequently commencing to build the 



NESTING-BQX POSITION 


second nest before their young can fly. Blue 
birds raise two broods of young each year and often three. 
Rarely, if ever, do they occupy the same nest a second time; 
so, if you have houses up they will surely be occupied. It is 
a fact that the only way you can attract the song birds around 
you is by erecting the proper houses for them. 

But you mustn’t be disappointed if the birds do not 
“walk into your parlors” right away. They are much more 
likely to take possession of a house that is not brand new. 
Birds are particular little fellows, and you may be surprised 
to know that you must not paint the inside of the compart- 







BEAD WORK AND BASKETRY 


13 


ments or even the edge of the doorway leading to the com¬ 
partments until the house has once been occupied. After that 
it doesn’t seem to make any difference. 

y come year after year to the same spot 
to make their nests you may expect to see your little friends 
returning to the summer home that you have built for them. 
And I’m sure father and mother bird and all the little baby 
birds will be grateful to you. 


Bead Work and Basketry 


Bead work is interesting and the Camp Fire Girls have 
given it a new significance. Each girl must wear her own cere¬ 
monial head-band before she may become a Wood-gatherer, 



LOOM FOR BEAD WORK 


working into it her own particular symbol. The designs here 
shown were made and used by Camp Fire Girls of New York. 

Looms may be purchased for twenty-five cents or less, 
but can be made following the drawing or using a cigar box. 









































































































14 


BEAD WORK AND BASKETRY 


Remove the lid from the box; with a pen knife cut notches one- 
sixteenth of an inch apart in the two short ends; then cut down 
the other two sides to within a half inch of the bottom. On each 
of the short ends nail three or four brass-headed tacks upon 
which to fasten the thread of the warp; or use push pins for 
this purpose. Heavy linen thread, a bead needle, size No. 11, 
and loom beads about No. 4-o will be needed. Many of the 
designs of the American Indian women are quaint and beau¬ 
tiful, and well worth imitating. 

To make a band, which will be, say, eleven beads wide, 
you fasten to the loom twelve warp threads about twenty-six 
inches long. The two outer ones are to form the edges of the 
band. 

First you take a needleful of white linen thread and tie 
it to the left top warp thread, and then thread eleven beads 
onto it, according to the pattern. 




Now comes the important thing in bead loom-work. You 
carry the needle with the string of beads under the warp 



















































































































































































































































































































































































BEAD WORK AND BASKETRY 


15 


thread, so that when the fingers press the beads upward from 
underneath, they come up through the spaces between the 
warp threads. To keep them in place you pass the needle 
through the beads from right to left over the warp threads this 
time. The row of beads is now secure. You proceed with 
the other rows, picking up the blue, white or amber beads 
according to pattern. The woof thread is fastened off by 
passing it through two or three rows of beads. Having made 
the band the desired length, you gather the warp threads into 
four bundles of three each and tie these up close to the beads. 
They can be stitched on to a piece of silk or ribbon if desired, 
and then easily tied. 

WEAVING 

On large looms, which, like the looms used for Indian 
bead work, can be either bought or made at home, it is possible 
to make mats, pillow tops, wash cloths, table covers and even 
rugs. Cotton or linen thread (colored or white) may be used 
for the warp and thread, jute rags, etc., for the woof. A flat 
wooden needle can be purchased or made out of soft wood, 
such as bass or orange, and the woof thread tied to a hole in 
it to prevent slipping. Weave in and out the warp threads, 
over one, under one, all the way across. 

MAKING BASKETS 

The making of baskets is always a fascinating occupa¬ 
tion, and there is nothing nicer than a dainty basket for a gift. 
When once you have learned to make one kind you can invent 
others, and make all sorts of baskets for your mother and 
friends. Diamond dyes are excellent for staining them. 

Here are directions for making a basket. The materials 
needed are four 16-inch spokes of No. 3 rattan; one short 9- 


16 


BEAD WOEK AND BASKETRY 


inch spoke of No. 3 rattan; several weavers of No. 2 rattan. 
Hold the four spikes crossed as shown in the illustration, the 
vertical ones nearest to you. Between the upper halves of 
these vertical spokes insert the short spoke, holding all firmly 
with the left hand. 

Place one end of the weaver along one of the horizontal 
spokes with the end toward the right. With the forefinger of 
the right hand press the weaver across the upper vertical spokes 
and down behind the horizontal ones on the right, as shown 
in the illustration; then over the lower vertical spokes and 
behind the horizontal ones on the left. Repeat this and then 
begin weaving over one and under one, having the spokes at 
all times evenly separated. 



CORRECT POSITION OF THE SPOKES 


When the bottom is about three inches in diameter, wet 
the spokes and turn them up carefully so that they will not 
break. Continue weaving until the spokes are about four 
inches long. Soak them thoroughly. Cut off the weaver, leav¬ 
ing just enough to go once around. After going under one 
spoke and over another, pass the weaver under the last row 
of weaving just before it reaches the next spoke, then behind 














THE DOLL’S DRESSMAKER 


17 


that spoke, in front of the next and under the last row of 
weaving before the next spoke. 

When a row of this binding is completed the mat is 
finished off with a border as follows: 

Let spoke No. 1 cross No. 2 and be pushed down into 
the basket beside No. 3. Let No. 2 cross No. 3 and be pushed 
down beside No. 4; and so on around the basket. 


The Doll’s Dressmaker 


Every little girl likes to be her own doll's dressmaker; 
but she doesn't always know just how to go about it—how to 
make the various stitches and seams and how to cut the pat¬ 
terns. Below are directions for making the most common 
stitches (it will not be necessary to master all at once) and 
instructions for making a few doll’s clothes. 

Running Stitch. —This is the simplest of all stitches 
and should consequently be learned first. Begin at the extreme 
right of the material, push the needle into it from above, bring 
it to the top again a short distance farther on toward the left, 
and pull the thread through. Continue doing this until you 
reach the extreme left, making the stitches small, in a straight 
line, and of equal length on both sides of the material. (See 

Fig, 1.) 

Basting Stitch. —This stitch is used to hold the pieces 
of material together for real sewing, and differs from the run¬ 
ning stitch only in that the stitch appearing on the upper side 
of the material is twice as long as that on the under side. After 
you have acquired a reasonable proficiency in making this 
stitch, lay the material to be basted flat on the table. 







18 


THE DOLL’S DRESSMAKER 


Overcasting Stitch. —This stitch is used to keep mate¬ 
rial from raveling, and, as it is used almost from the begin¬ 
ning, should be one of the first learned. Bring the needle up 
from the under side of the goods, close to the edge; pull the 
thread through; then bring the needle up again from under¬ 
neath, a little farther on toward the left, and pull the thread 
through again. The thread will then lie diagonally across the 
raw edge of the goods. 

Overseaming Stitch. —This stitch is used in damask 
hemming, in sewing on lace and in some kinds of patching. 
It is like the overcasting stitch except that the stitches are close 
together and the thread is drawn tighter, and should be made 



Fig. 2 illustrates the method of making the stitch and its 
appearance when done. 

Back Stitch. —The stitch is used where an unusually 
strong seam is needed. Bring the needle up from below and 













THE DOLL'S DRESSMAKEB 


* D 

pull the thread through. Then, instead of putting it into the 
material ahead of the thread, put it in a short space back of 
the thread, bring the needle back to the upper side a short 
space in front of the thread, and draw the thread through. 

Combination Stitch.— This stitch is a combination of a 

running stitch and a back stitch and is used when a stitch 
stronger than the former and not so strong as the latter is 

needed. Take two running stitches and one back stitch. 

Hemming Stitch.— This stitch is used to sew down 
hems. It is a necessary part of plain sewing, and should not 
be confused with the hemstitching stitch, which is a fancy 
stitch and is not needed for ordinary work. To make it, bring 
the needle up through the hem close to the edge that is to be 
sewed down (so that the knot on the end of the thread lies 
between the hem and the material, merely catching up a few 
threads of the material) and draw the thread through. Insert 
the needle in a single thickness of the material a little farther 
on toward the left, catch up three or four threads and bring 
the needle up and through the very edge of the folded part, 
as in Fig. 3. Then draw the thread tight. 

Wardrobe for the Doll. —When you have mastered 
the stitches and seams, you may begin to sew doll’s clothes, and 
besides having the pleasure of being able to provide a ward¬ 
robe for your doll, you may also have that of making your own 
patterns. 

Take a piece of paper fourteen inches square; lay a ruler 
along the top, and place dots on the paper opposite the inch 
marks. Do the same along the lower edge, and then connect 
the dots by lines drawn with a ruler. Do the same with the 
sides, and when you have finished, you will have your paper 
covered with squares, ready to have the pattern drawn upon it. 



THE DOLL’S DRESSMAKER 

































































































THE DOLL’S DRESSMAKER 


21 


Take the pattern for half of the front of the doll's dress, 
as given in the diagram, and, beginning in the upper left-hand 
square, draw as much of the pattern in it as appears in the cor¬ 
responding figure in the accompanying illustration; then fol¬ 
low the line into the next square and so on until the entire 
pattern has been drawn upon your paper. Cut it out, and you 

will have a pattern for a doll twelve inches in height. 

If you want the pattern for a doll six inches in height, 
make half-inch squares; if for a nine-inch doll, make three- 
quarter-inch squares. 

After you have cut this pattern, rule squares and cut pat¬ 
terns for the other parts of the dress to give you sufficient 
practice to fix every part of the operation in your mind. Then, 
when all are cut, fit them to the doll. 

In each case, except the sleeve, only half of the pattern 
is given, so to cut the whole part you must fold the cloth over 
so that it is double, and lay the middle edge of the pattern 
along the edge of the fold. Then baste the different patterns 
on the cloth and cut them out. 

When this has been done, pull out the basting threads 
and put away your pattern. Take two of the cut pieces and 
lay them so that the edges of the parts that must be sewed 
together rest one on top of the other with the wrong side of the 
material out. Baste them and fit the garment on the doll, 
making the slight alterations that will be necessary. Then you 
are ready for the finishing. 

Finish the bottom with a hem; bind the neck with a bias 
strip of the material, and finish by sewing in a piece of very 
narrow lace-edging. Then fit in the sleeves properly, and bind 
the seams with bias strips of the cloth. 


22 


ARTIST, ACTOR, PUBLISHER AND TRAVELER 

Artist, Actor, Publisher and Traveler 

Here is a story of the months, which you may like to illus¬ 
trate. You can draw, paint, or cut the pictures out of paper: 

“January brings the snow, 

Makes our feet and fingers glow. 

“February brings the rain, 

Thaws the frozen lake again. 

“March brings breezes sharp and chill, 

Shakes the dancing daffodil. 

“April brings the primrose sweet, 

Scatters daisies at our feet. 

“May brings flocks of pretty lambs, 

Sporting round their fleecy dams. 

“June brings tulips, lilies, roses, 

Fills the children’s hands with posies. 

“Hot July brings thunder-showers, 

Apricots, and gilly-flowers. 

“August brings the sheaves of corn; 

Then the harvest home is borne. 

“Warm September brings the fruit; 

Sportsmen then begin to shoot. 

“Brown October brings the pheasant 
Then to gather nuts is pleasant. 

“Dull November brings the blast— 

Hark! the leaves are whirling fast. 

“Cold December brings the sleet, 

Blazing fire, and Christmas treat” 

THE HOME ACTOR 

Perhaps you have a big nursery with plenty of room to 
act plays and even hang up a sheet for a curtain if you wish it; 
but whether you have or not you can surely find a place in 



ARTIST, ACTOR, PUBLISHER AND TRAVELER 


23 


which to act out your favorite stories. The attic or store room 
may even furnish costumes. If not, you can always “pretend” 
and devise many things out of materials always at hand— 
crowns of paper, wooden swords, long robes of draped shawls 
or sheets, stuffed out with soft pillows when you wish to 
• represent stout persons, etc. 

What shall you act? Well, my dear children, just any¬ 
thing you wish, from “Old King Cole” and “Mary, Mary, 
Quite Contrary” to Rostand’s “Chantecler,” Maeterlinck’s 
/‘Blue Bird,” or scenes from your history lessons. Perhaps 
your teacher will give you some help, or even let you act a play 
occasionally during school hours. That would be fun, indeed, 
wouldn’t it? because then you would have plenty of people for 
all the parts. 

Think of the stories you really like best of all, for the 
cnances are you will find acting easiest in those that you know 
and love. The old fairy tales are usually favorites. 

THE HOME PUBLISHER 

Did you ever wish to edit a paper for your club, print cir¬ 
culars or cards for special tea parties and entertainments? 
Just propose a weekly paper to your club or sewing circle and 
see how the idea will go. Think of having a sheet for each 
one of you containing the news of the week and the stories or 
verses any of you may have written! 

How will you get the papers? Well, you will not print 
them, for that is expensive and difficult; but you can copy them 
by means of a hectograph. This is how the hectograph is made: 

The first thing you will require is a very shallow tin dish, 
which must be larger than any piece of paper you are likely to 
use for any newspapers or programs you are likely to make. 
The lid of a square or oblong bread box will do nicely. Then 


24 ARTIST, ACTOR, PUBLISHER AND TRAVELER 

you require some material, which will not cost more than a few 
cents. You must have 1 ounce of gelatine, 1 ounce of Deme- 
rara sugar, 6 ounces of glycerine, and 214 ounces of barium 
sulphate, which you can purchase from a druggist. Better 
also have a 1-ounce bottle, which you can buy at a drug store. 
You break up the gelatine into small pieces, and put it in a 
small saucepan with 3 ounces of water, letting it steep there 
over night. The bottle, filled three times, will give you 3 
ounces of water. Next morning pour in the glycerine, and heat 
the mixture over a gentle fire. Now put in the sugar, and keep 
the mixture hot until the sugar also is dissolved. Take the 
barium sulphate and mix it up thoroughly with 1 ounce of 
water in a cup, and then pour this into the saucepan with the 
other things you have already put there. 

When you have mixed this thoroughly by stirring it, pour 
it into the flat tin dish with which you provided yourself. The 
dish should be quite clean and free from grease. If necessary 
you can wash it with hot water and soap before you begin. 
When the mixture has hardened it will have a flat surface like 
soft India rubber. It is then ready for use. 

You can purchase hectograph ink at any stationer’s, or you 
can make it yourself. If you prefer the latter, you take your 
1-ounce bottle to the druggist and ask him for 2 drachms of 
methyl-violet aniline and 2 drachms of spirit. Fill up the 
bottle with water and shake it until the aniline is dissolved. 

The method of using the hectograph is simple. You take 
a piece of paper with a highly-glazed surface, and write with 
your ink your circular or program. When the writing is dry, 
you place the paper, face downward, upon the hectograph, 
taking care that you do so without making any wrinkles in 
the paper. 


ARTIST, ACTOR, PUBLISHER AND TRAVELER 25 

Now you rub the back of the paper with the fingers so as 
to press the writing upon the surface of the composition. After 
the paper has remained five or ten minutes, you remove it, 
pulling it off by one end. The hectograph will be found to have 
taken the impression of the writing. You now take some 
sheets of paper not so highly glazed as the paper upon which 
you wrote, and press them, one after another, upon the hecto¬ 
graph surface, letting them lie for a few seconds before remov¬ 
ing them. It will be found that an impression of the writing 
has come upon the paper, and that you can take forty or 
fifty copies of the circular before the ink becomes too faint to 
be legible. 

To clean the hectograph wash it first with a little water 
mixed with an eighth part of hydrochloric acid, also known as 
spirit of salt, and then with pure water. It should stand for 
at least twelve hours after it has been cleaned before being 
used again. 


THE TRAVELER 

No excursions out of doors ever held more delight for 
some little people I used to know than certain “sketching 
trips” that were taken all inside of their own small play-room. 
A rainy day was usually chosen for these delightful excursions 
(probably because going out was impossible). With camp 
stools that were really non-folding chairs, pencils, sketch books, 

water colors and lunch baskets, they would set out to return 
some hours later with pictures of all sorts, from puppy dogs to 

gorgeous sunsets with “light that never was on sea or land.” 
“But the sky did look exactly like that,” the little girl would 
insist, and as no grown-up had been with her, there was nothing 
more to be said. 


26 


EVERYDAY PASTIMES 


Then there were other excursions through the wilderness 
(also indoors), in which all sorts of wild animals raged through 
that same living room, and refuge could only be had by 
scrambling into a near-by cave (the closet) from which one 
might only occasionally peep out. 

Railroad trips, too, had their place, with plenty of bag¬ 
gage and pillows and lunches for hungry children. Straight 
chairs were the day coaches, easy chairs the pullman seats, and 
the couch a berth (the upper, of course, with the floor for the 
lower). But in spite of the joys of traveling it was always the 
conductor’s place that was most sought after. “All aboard 
for New York, stopping only at Trenton.” “This way for the 
day coaches; observation car in the rear.” “Chicago, Kansas 
City, Denver, Salt Lake City and San Francisco.” “Local 
train to Paoli, stopping at all points,” etc., etc. 


Everyday Pastimes 

The making of scrap books is an old, old pastime, but can 
be varied in many new and delightful ways. 

Save old magazines, circulars and illustrated papers and 
from them cut out pictures. Have an object in cutting and 

cut neatly. Provide a large box in which to keep the cuttings 
and when you have a great many, sort them into all kinds of 

groups—little-boy pictures, little-girl pictures, work pictures, 
play pictures, cat pictures, dog pictures, any-one-kind-of- 
animal pictures, indoor pictures, outdoor pictures, summer 
pictures, winter pictures, farm pictures, city pictures, country 
pictures, baby pictures, water pictures, etc. 





EVERYDAY PASTIMES 


27 


From these make up classified scrap books—animal books, 
children’s books, outdoor books, indoor books, and so on. Make 
the scrap books of cambric or strong wrapping paper, and give 
them away as Christmas gifts to little friends or send them to 
poor children or to hospital wards. 

STENCILING 

Even very little children can learn to do stencil work, 
and there are in every household pieces of old muslin which 
can be made into curtains or table covers for the nursery or doll’s 
house. 

The materials needed are a heavy stencil brush and one 
or two tubes of oil paint. Mix the paint in an old saucer, 
thinning it with turpentine. Do not, however, use too much 
turpentine, or the paint will run and smear. With thumb-tacks 
fasten the material to be stenciled tightly to a board. Then 
fasten the stencil and apply the paint. Rub the brush with a 
circular motion until each opening is well filled with color. If 
using two colors, do not apply the second until the first has 
dried. When done, lift the stencil carefully in order that the 
material may not become smeared. 

SOAP BUBBLES 

Both big and little children enjoy soap bubbles and these 
may be blown from empty spools if clay pipes are not at hand. 

For the liquid shave castile soap in boiling water; put it 
over the fire until melted; cool and if too thick add more hot 
water. Then add one tablespoon of glycerine for every pint 
of liquid. The glycerine is not necessary, but improves the 
color of the bubbles. Just before using rub the inside of the 
pipe-bowls or the edges of the spools with soap. 


28 


EVERYDAY PASTIMES 



SUGGESTIONS FOR PAPER-CUTTING 
Use heavy paper; mark it off into squares and draw the pattern 










































































EVERYDAY PASTIMES 


29 


BELLS OF COLOGNE 

Tie a spoon by the handle to the middle of a string. Wind 
the ends of the string around the index fingers and put the 
lingers in the ears. Swing the spoon so that its bowl will strike 
against the table. The sound will be like the chimes of bells. 

RING-TOSS 

Saw off two feet of an old broom-handle; glue or nail it 
to a wooden box, and practice throwing over this post rings 
taken from a small barrel, or embroidery hoops or rings made 
of reed or wire firmly tied with raffia or string. Wind them 
around with bright-colored strips of muslin or ribbon. 

PAPER CHAINS 

Every child delights in a chain of any sort, from a daisy 
chain in the field to a popcorn chain for the Christmas tree. 
Either cut paper strips for this or obtain them in appropriate 
size (half-inch width) from a kindergarten supply house. 

The strips are twenty inches long. Have the children cut 
them into five-inch pieces. Then have them paste the two ends 
of the strip together, making a ring. To this have them link 
another strip and paste the ends, and so on until the chain is 
of the desired length. String these chains up somewhere for 
a little while, then save them for the Christmas tree. Chains 
of red, white and blue make pretty decorations for Fourth of 
July, and red and green are effective for Christmas. 

GOBOLINKS 

Have a number of sheets of paper (4x6 inches is a good 
size) and pen and ink. Spread the material out on an old cloth 


30 


EVERYDAY PASTIMES 


WASHINGTON 


or newspaper for fear of accidents. Take one sheet of paper and 
make one or two small blots near the center; fold it afterward 

exactly in half. Open the paper and see the 
strange “gobolinks.” Secret skeletons may 
be made in much the same way by signing 
one’s name in heavy ink on a lengthwise 
fold of the paper, and pressing the two 
halves together in the fold. 

CLAY-MODELING 

Clay is one of the simplest play mate¬ 
rials, and one of the most delightful. Keep 
it in a stone crock with a little water. 
Do not cover it closely or the clay will mold. 
Oilcloth is good material to work on, al¬ 
though the clay does not really soil anything. 
When dry it can be readily brushed off. 

Try copying simple objects, pottery of all sorts, and even 
birds and animals. These can be dried and kept for a time; 
then if broken they can be returned to the jar. 

INDOOR GARDENS 

If you have never tried having a garden in a window sill 
in the winter time you have missed a great deal of pleasure. 
Of course you will not want to have it in a window that you 
open at night, or your plants may freeze; and you will want 
to choose as sunny a place as you can. 

There are a number of plants that do well indoors in gar¬ 
den soil, and perhaps you can even bring geraniums and bego¬ 
nias to bloom, but plants that grow in water instead of earth 
are cleaner and in some ways more satisfactory for indoor gar¬ 
dens. Ivy will grow well in water, branches of fruit and shade 
trees will blossom and sometimes send out roots; an acorn will 



EVERYDAY PASTIMES 


31 


grow in a narrow-necked bottle, a sweet potato will send forth 
a beautiful vine to adorn your window, the spiderwort will give 
a wealth of fresh green leaves, and hyacinths and other bulbs 
will grow and bloom. A piece of charcoal in the bottom of each 
jar will keep the water sweet. 

Then there are all manner of things to be grown from 
seed. Even canary seed will make pretty gardens for you. 
Take an old sponge, wet it, place it on a saucer, sprinkle seeds 
over the top. Keep it in the dark until the seeds begin to 
sprout, then bring it out and let it grow in the sunlight till you 
have a mound of beautiful green. Do not let the sponge 
become dry. Or take pine cones that are flat enough at the 
base to be made to stand upright in saucers; sprinkle seeds over 
them, and water whenever dry. The seeds will rest in the many 
tiny cups of the cone and if kept wet will grow into bright 
green plants. 

WITH SPOOLS AND GRAPE BASKETS 

Ask mother to save her empty spools and berry or grape 
baskets, and see what wonderful things you can make of them. 

The spools make beautiful pillars for temples and bridges, 
pedestals for tables and stools, wheels for chariots and wagons, 
etc. The flat wood of the boxes or baskets furnishes lumber for 
roof, walls, wagons, etc. With a knife or scissors and some 
mucilage or paper clips you can do much. By running a long 
stick through two spools, slipping one spool to each end, excel¬ 
lent supports for larger wagons, made perhaps from whole 
baskets, can be made. See what you can do! 

BLOWING THE EGG 

First of all make ready your egg. Prick a tiny hole in each 
end and blow the contents out. The egg will then be almost 
as light as a feather. 


32 


EVERYDAY PASTIMES 


Stretch two pieces of string or tape across the table about 
eighteen inches apart, and lay the egg between them. The two 
players, A and B, must sit opposite each other and blow or fan 
the egg. A must try not to let the egg cross the line on his side, 
B must try not to let it cross the line on his. The player who 

first drives the egg across his opponent’s line three times wins 
the game. 

SHADOW PICTURES 

Any one with a little trying can learn to make shadow 
pictures—many more, indeed, than those shown in the illus¬ 
tration. 

It is better, if pos¬ 
sible, to have a low light, 
and, of course, the brighter 
the light, the better will 
be the pictures. They 
should be thrown upon 
some smooth, light sur¬ 
face, and for ordinary 
purposes a light-tinted 
wall will do. Follow 
closely the position of the 
hands in the illustration. 

Having learned to 
make the various animals, 
the next thing is to learn 
to make the shadows move 
—open and close their 
mouths, shake their ears, 
etc. This can easily be 
done by a little practice, and as you can imagine, is the most 
delightful part of the performance. 



POSITION OF THE HANDS 





EVERYDAY PASTIMES 


33 


SWEET LAVENDER 

If you want to make a dainty gift, there is nothing much 
better than a lavender bag or bottle. Sweet lavender was much 
used by our great grandmothers to make their linens and 
clothing freshly fragrant. 

For the bag take a piece of thin lawn or linen about four¬ 
teen inches by five. Lay the two short ends together and seam 
up the two long sides. Put an inch hem around the top. Fill 
with lavender and tie with lavender ribbon. 

For the bottle cut off the heads of lavender sticks and 
place them in a piece of thin muslin about four inches square. 
Roll up the muslin, making a long bundle of it and tying it 
tightly at the top and bottom. 

Then take an odd number of lavender sticks—say eleven 
—and cut them about nine inches long. Tie them together 
tightly near the end about three-quarters of an inch down; put 
the bag of lavender carefully in between them, arranging the 
sticks at equal distances apart, and tying the sticks at the other 
end of the bag. 

With a bodkin threaded with baby ribbon weave in 
and out through the sticks all the way from top to bottom. 
Fasten the end of the ribbon securely; tie bows of ribbon at the 
top and bottom of the bag and also near the end of the sticks. 

A BOAT THAT MOVES 

Cut out a boat from thin tinfoil, making it about two 
inches long, with a triangular notch at the stern. Place the 
boat on the water so that it will float, and upon the tinfoil 
in the angle of the notch place a small piece of gum camphor, 
about the size of a pea. The camphor must rest partly on 
the tinfoil and partly in the water; and so long as it remains 
in this position it will drive the little boat across the water. 


34 


PARTIES 


Parties 

Giving parties—especially if you give them by yourself— 
is great fun, and mother can scarcely object if you promise to 
make all the preparations and do all the ‘'straightening up” 
after your guests have left. 

With little trouble and a great deal of pleasure you can 
make odd and pretty invitations. What could be prettier for a 
May-day party than a little basket or nosegay of flowers, with 
a tiny note attached by baby ribbon, written in your own hand, 
or typed by your brother on his machine. It might be in rhyme. 

The first of May is drawing near, 

Most beautiful of all the year, 

So let us celebrate the day— 

That you will come please write and say. 

Don’t forget to put the date and the hour in the left-hand 
corner. 

For May-day there is nothing better than a picnic in the 
fields or woods, where there will be plenty of flowers, not only 
to crown the Queen of the May, but to make wreaths for every¬ 
body if you wish. 

Here are some further suggestions for parties: 

I—January (a coasting party). 

With a heigh and a ho, and a heigh nonny, nonny no, 

Hurrah, hurrah for the snow ! 

If you will be ready on this very Thursday 
A-coasting at four we will go. 

II —February (a patriotic party). 

To Washington’s country, and good Lincoln’s too, 

We must ever and ever be true, 

So come on next Friday at quarter of four 
To honor the red, white and blue. 



PARTIES 


35 


III —March (a soap bubble party). 

Bubbles big and bubbles small; 

Bubbles bright for one and all; 
Come and blow your bubbles here; 
I will welcome you with cheer. 


IV—April (an Easter party). 

Spring is come; 

The little birds sing; 

All the world is glad. 

Please come to my party; 

I bid you right hearty 
To celebrate Easter with me. 

I’ve invited the bunny, 

Please don’t think it funny; 

He always spends Easter with me. 


V—May (a buttercup party). 

Buttercups, buttercups, 
Buttercups gay, 
Let’s gather buttercups 
Next Saturday. 


VI —June (a circus party). 

Circus day has come and gone, 

With elephant, horses, and clown. 

But if you will come to my back lawn. 
We’ll have a circus all our own. 

VII —July (a Japanese tea party). 

Your august presence is desired 
To drink a cup of tea, 

Please come in kimono attired— 
For Japanese we’ll be. 


3 6 


PARTIES 


VIII— August (a garden party). 

Under the tree in our garden next week, 

We’ll gather at Saturday noon. 

With this little garland your presence I seek. 

Oh won’t you please answer it soon? 

IX— September (a Mother Goose party). 

Mother Goose and all her goslings are to gather at my house, 

She never had so many children that she didn’t know what to do. 

Dress if you can like one of them, but come at least and play. 

O little boy blue, please blow your horn; 

Call your friends to my meadow next Saturday morn. 

X— October (a Hallowe’en party). 

Please don a sheet and be a ghost, 

And come to my house with the host. 

Beside the fire our toes we’ll toast, 

Chestnuts and other goodies roast. 

Come on a broom-stick 
Or come on your feet; 

But whatever you do, 

Please don’t miss the treat. 

XI— November (a candy-pulling). 

Chill November days are here— 

Time indeed for indoor cheer. 

To the candy-pulling-bee 
Come next Saturday at three. 

XII— December (a Christmas party). 

At Christmas sing and make good cheer, 

For Christmas comes but once a year. 

Next Friday then, as, I’m alive, 

We’ll merry make from three till five. 

Of course you won’t want to have a party every month, 
and probably once a year will be often enough; but after 
mother has helped you with the first one you ought to be able 





POEMS FOR RECITATION 


37 


to plan the rest by yourself. Cocoa and buns in the winter, 
and lemonade and cake in the summer are the very best of 
refreshments, though of course if you go to the woods you 
will probably want sandwiches and fruit for a real meal. 


Poe 


II 


ls for Recitation 


A DUTCH LULLABY* 

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night 
Sailed off in a wooden shoe— 

Sailed on a river of misty light 
Into a sea of dew. 

“Where are you going, and what do you wish 4 ? 55 

The old moon asked the three. 

“We have come to fish for the herring-fish 
That live in this beautiful sea: 

Nets of silver and gold have we, 55 
Said Wynken, 

Blynken, 

And Nod. 

The old moon laughed and sung a song, 

And they rocked in the wooden shoe, 

And the wind that sped them all night long 
Ruffled the waves of dew; 

*From A Little Book of Western Verse , copyrighted by Eugene Field and 
published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 







38 


POEMS FOR RECITATION 


The little stars were the herring-fish 
That lived in the beautiful sea; 

“Now cast your nets wherever you wish, 

But never afeared are we”— 

So cried the stars to the fishermen three, 

Wynken, 

Blynken, 

And Nod. 

All night long their nets they threw 

For the fish in the twinkling foam, 

Then down from the sky came the wooden shoe, 
Bringing the fishermen home. 

5 Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed 
As if it could not be; 

And some folks thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed 
Of sailing that beautiful sea. 

But I shall name you the fishermen three: 

Wynken, 

Blynken, 

And Nod. 

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes, 

And Nod is a little head, 

And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies 
Is a wee one’s trundle-bed; 

So shut your eyes while mother sings 

And you shall see the beautiful things 
As you rock in the misty sea, 

Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three—* 
Wynken, 

Blynken, 

And Nod. 


POEMS FOR RECITATION 


SEVEN TIMES ONE 

There’s no dew left on the daisies and clover, 

There’s no rain left in heaven: 

I’ve said my “seven times” over and over, 

Seven times one are seven. 

I am old, so old, I can write a letter; 

My birthday lessons are done; 

The lambs play always, they know no better; 

They are only one times one. 

O moon! in the night I have seen you sailing 
And shining so round and low; 

You were bright! ah bright! but your light is failing, 
You are nothing now but a bow. 

You moon, have you done something wrong in heaven 
That God has hidden vour face? 

I hope if you have you will soon be forgiven, 

And shine again in your place. 

O velvet bee, you’re a dusty fellow, 

You’ve powder’d your legs with gold! 

O brave marshmary buds, rich and yellow, 

Give me your money to hold! 

O columbine, open your folded wrapper, 

Where two twin turtle-doves dwell! 

O cuckoopint, toll me the purple clapper 
That hangs in your clear green bell! 

And show me your nest with the young ones in it; 

I will not steal them away; 

I am old! you may trust me, linnet, linnet, 

I am seven times one to-day. 


—Jean Ingelow. 


40 


POEMS EGB BECITATION 


GOOD-NIGHT AND GOOD-MORNING 

A fair little girl sat under a tree, 

Sewing as long as her eyes could see; 

Then smoothed her work and folded it right, 

And said, “Dear work, good-night, good-night!” 

Such a number of rooks came over her head, 

Crying “Caw! caw!” on their way to bed, 

She said, as she watched their curious flight, 

“Little black things, good-night, good-night!” 

The horses neighed, and the oxen lowed, 

The sheep’s “Bleat! bleat!” came over the road; 

All seeming to say, with a quiet delight, 

“Good little girl, good-night, good-night!” 

She did not say to the sun, “Good-night!” 

Though she saw him there like a ball of light; 

For she knew he had God’s time to keep 
All over the world, and never could sleep. 

The tall pink foxglove bowed his head; 

The violets curtsied, and went to bed; 

And good little Lucy tied up her hair, 

And said, on her knees, her favorite prayer. 

And while on her pillow she softly lay, 

She knew nothing more till again it was day; 

And all things said to the beautiful sun, 

“Good-morning, good-morning! our work is begun.” 

-—Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). 


POEMS POE, RECITATION 


41 


ULYSSES 

It little profits that an idle king, 

By this still hearth, among these barren crags, 
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole 
Unequal laws upon a savage race, 

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink 
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy’d 
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those 
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when 
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; 

For always roaming with a hungry heart 
Much have I seen and known; cities of men 
And manners, climates, councils, governments, 
Myself not least, but honor’d of them all; 

And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 

I am a part of all that I have met; 

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’ 

Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades 
Forever and forever when I move. 

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 

To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use! 

As tho’ to breathe were life. Life piled on life 
Were all too little, and of one to me 
Little remains: but every hour is saved 
From that eternal silence, something more, 

A bringer of new things; and vile it were 
For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 

And this gray spirit yearning in desire 
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. 


42 


POEMS FOR RECITATION 


v"» 


This is my son, mine own Telemachus, 

To whom I leave the scepter and the isle— 

Well loved of me, discerning to fulfil 
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild 
A rugged people, and thro 5 soft degrees 
Subdue them to the useful and the good. 

Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere 
Of common duties, decent not to fail 
In offices of tenderness, and pay 
Meet adoration to my household gods, 

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. 

There lies the port: the vessel puffs her sail: 

There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners, 

Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me 
That ever with a frolic welcome took 
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old; 

Old age hath yet his honor and his toil; 

Death closes all: but something ere the end, 

Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: 

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep 
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 

’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 


POEMS FOR RECITATION 


43 


It may be that the gulfs will wash us down. 

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho ? 

We are not now that strength which in old days 
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are— 

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. 

—Alfred Tennyson. 



England. 


E find on our arrival in England that 
the little British baby, like the 
American child, is tended very 
carefully—washed, dressed, nursed 
and petted by all in the house until 
he is able to crawl and then learns 
to walk nicely. What a wonderful 
thing it is when he cuts his first tooth! 
Then as he grows older, the little 
child is taken on his mother’s knee 
and taught his letters. The time 
when the baby has his first birthday 
party —that is fun! They play “Blind 
Man’s Buff,” “Puss in the Corner,” “Hunt the Slipper,” and 
many such pleasant games in which the youngest can join 
and enjoy the fun as much as the older ones. “All the chiB 
dren look after baby,” and after some fine fun, the little one 
climbs on his mother’s knee until it is time to go to sleep. 
The pretty picture book helps to amuse and teach him, and 
slowly and surely the first stages of lessons and music are 
passed. The perambulator is put away, and the hoop, the 
top, the battledore and shuttlecock (games which we do not 
often see in America) and the paint box are daily amusements 
and pastimes for the children. 















ENGLAND 


45 





A few years 
pass away, and 
then study time 
comes. Most of 
the boys and 
girls whose parents can afford it 
are taught at home by a governess. 
The poorer children are sent to 
public schools. The little girls 
who wish to be useful to their par¬ 
ents help their mother in the 
housekeeping, learn to sew and 
hem and stitch and put on buttons. 
They will do all they can to help 
their father, also. They will have 
games at lawn tennis and run about 
and enjoy themselves, but they will 
study, too. The boys 'are fine, 
manly fellows and can already play 
cricket and foot-ball and compete 
in many exercises, and learn to be 
well-behaved and courteous, which, 
united with pluck and endurance, 
is the foundation of the English 
gentleman’s education. 

When the holidays come, then 
the British boys and girls have a 
good time. The school year in 
Great Britain is generally divided 
into three terms, so there are three 
separate holidays—Eastertim ~ 


1 


HOLIDAYS 














46 


ENGLAND 


Midsummer and Christmas. At Eastertime it is the custom 
to send cards to children, and older people too, but the 
children receive more; pretty pictures with verses suited to 
the season, much as we send here at various seasons to 
our friends. 

Good St. Valentine is not so much remembered in Eng¬ 
land as he used to be; Christmas and Easter and birthday 
cards have put valentines aside in many families. These 
cards make up very pretty albums for the poorer children. 
Some boys and girls paste all their cards into scrap-books, 
and after awhile give them away to poorer children whose 
parents cannot afford to give them such nice things. There 
are thousands of children in Great Britain who work in mines 
and factories, and have no comforts, no pretty toys, and have 
very little care shown to them, but whenever it is possible 
we like to think that the good gifts and presents of the 
wealthier class are gladly and freely shared with them. 

The great pet of the English girl is her doll, and in 
whatever station of life she may be the “dolly” is taken al¬ 
most as much care of as the baby. Even the favorite fat 
pussy cat is neglected for the new doll. Some of the Eng¬ 
lish children have splendid doll houses, and a beautiful en¬ 
tertainment is held at the doll’s house at which tea and cake 
are the leading features. In this way, as you know, the little 
English and the little American girls are very much alike. 

In the morning, our English cousins always have marma¬ 
lade with their breakfast and are all very fond of it. The 
English are very fond of tea, and would no more think of 
missing their afternoon tea, served with bread and butter 
sandwiches cut very, very thin and, generally out of doors in 
good weather, than they would their dinner. 

The English girl is carefully educated in the arts of dress 


ENGLAND 


4 7 


and deportment. From ten years old, or earlier, until she is 
seventeen or eighteen, she has no small amount of trouble 
and money expended upon her and is looked after with the 
greatest care. Unlike our girls, who are permitted to mingle 
freely and be good friends with the boys, the English girl re¬ 
mains under her mother’s close care until she is old enough 
to be presented at court, or to go out into society in a less 
public fashion. Until then she generally wears her hair down 
her back. 

There are some anniversaries which are kept by children 
more than by grown-up people in England. One of these 
is the fifth day of November—The Gunpowder Plot Anniver¬ 
sary. On that day, as you will learn in your English History, 
Guy Fawkes and some others tried to blow up the king and 
Parliament; but their plot was found out and they were ar¬ 
rested just in time in the cellars beneath the House of Par¬ 
liament. This day is celebrated by a display of fireworks, 
squibs, etc., which in the country and suburbs give much 
amusement to the people. Boys and girls unite in letting off 
Catherine or pin-wheels and Roman candles. Sometimes a 
little battle is arranged, and the opposing sides of boys shoot 
Roman candles and throw squibs at one another. This form 
Of firework display, however, is rather dangerous and likely 
to lead to accidents. 

In summer one of the favorite sports is the national 
game of cricket. It is a curious fact that few English girls 
and no people out of England, except here in America and 
in the English Colonies, understand cricket. Still, wherever 
you find English people in Europe, Asia, or Africa, you will 
find cricketers, and as a rule they are fine, manly fellows. 
Girls play lawn tennis and skip with the rope; they can row, 


4 3 




ride and scull a boat, but they cannot play cricket, and* 
as a rule, they do not understand the details of the game. 
It is too active and rough a game for them. 

Look at these 
lads carrying their 
companion who has 
“carried out” his bat 
after making top 
score. Can there be 
a prouder moment 
in any lad’s life than 
that when, as the 
captain of his school 
eleven, he has made 
his ioo runs—“got 
into his century”— 
and, after defying all 
the bowling, is left 
“not out?” There 
may be triumphs in 
after-life—the degree 
at the university, the 
success in the hunt¬ 
ing field or in the 
fields of business or 
science, but we ven- 
the cricket hero. ture to say that the 

most cherished triumph of the English boy is his cricket 
“average,” or his successful leadership of his team in the 
cricket-field. 

In England there are certain times for certain games 
and to play cricket before Easter, or to commence rowing 






















































ENGLAND 


49 


before the Inter-University race, would be thought quite out 
of order. In Scotland golf takes the place of cricket, and in 
Ireland hurling, like the English ‘'hockey/’ is the national 
sport. Throughout Great Britain the game of rounders is 
universally popular. This is the game from which our na¬ 
tional base-ball originated. The diamond or field of play is 
the same; the bases are called points, but the runner to be 
put out must be hit with the ball (they play with a soft one). 
Otherwise it is very little different from our base-ball. Their 
game of association foot-ball, played throughout the winter 
when the snow is not too deep, has come over to us, and has 
grown in popularity in the eastern part of the United States. 
This game is different from the American college game, for 
the players must not to a on. the ball with their hands, 
for the players must not touch the ball with their hands. 

All Saints’ Eve, or Hallowe’en, is another occasion upon 
which the young people, more particularly in Scotland and 
Ireland, have many games. In Ireland melting lead to 
tell the future, bobbing for apples, burning nuts on bars and 
other games of the same kind are always indulged in. The 
children go into the kitchen for the fun and the servants 
enjoy their coming. Cook, nurse, butler, housekeeper and 
retainer all are present. The "Apple and Candle” game, not 
so well known with us, is common there and very amusing. 
Two sticks or laths are laid across each other, fastened 
together, and hung from the ceiling. At the four ends are 
hung in succession pieces of apple and the ends of lighted 
candles. The whole is then set whirling around and the skill 
consists in snapping the apple as it comes around and escap¬ 
ing the candle. Sometimes the player has a nice mouthful 
of candle, which gives him a relish for Hallowe’en—-and 
longer. Popping of chestnuts completes the amusement. 

Christmas is celebrated in a way so nearly like our own 


5 ° 


EHGLAITD 


that we shall only mention the few ways in which they dif¬ 
fer. No Christmas dinner there would be complete without 
plum pudding’s and mince pies. The great pudding comes 
in burning, is placed on the table, and then the fire is ex¬ 
tinguished. The lamps are turned down, the candles put 
out and the spirit in the dish is lit again. They dig out the 
raisins like so many “Jack Horners,” some one looks green 
and ghastly—they all look green and ghastly—salt has been 
put in and spoiled the taste! The candles are lit, the lamps 
turned up and they all sing Christmas carols before parting. 

In Ireland on St. Stephen’s Day a favorite sport is to 
hunt the wren. The boys go out with sticks into the field 
and these “wren boys” try to find and kill poor Jenny Wren. 

4 ‘The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,' . 

On St. Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze.*’ 

The wren is said to be the king of all birds, because, 
as the story goes, when the eagle flew the highest of all birds 
and was elected king, the wren, which had been hiding on 
the eagle’s back, claimed to be king, because she arose from 
the tired eagle’s feathers and flew up a long, long distance 
after her long rest, and certain wicked boys wish to kill her 
on that account. 

During the holidays the English generally have a 
“school treat” and a Christmas tree for the poorer children 
in which the clergyman and a certain number of young ladies 
take a very active part. There is much planning in getting 
ready a fine and shapely fir tree, decorated with all the pos¬ 
sible and impossible animals that ever might, would, could or 
should have inhabited Noah’s Ark. These animals are for 
the younger children, who are also given musical instru¬ 
ments of many kinds, including drums, penny whistles and 
squeaking pipes. All these played and blown and whistled 










THE ANNUAL CHILDREN’S FANCY DRESS BALL IN LONDON 

This occasion every year is looked forward to with the greatest pleasure by the little boys and girls of London. See if vou can puesc from tho mctnmp, 

shown in this picture, what each boy and girl is dressed to represent. K ’ umes 









ENGLAND 


5 * 


at once, mingling with the baaing of woolly toy sheep, the 
barking of the four-wheeled dogs, and the mooing of wooden 
cows, which complain when their tails are pulled—and no 
wonder—make up a concert in which there is very little 
music but a great deal of noise. After such a 1 ‘school treat’’ 
for children, those who take part are half deaf and feel much 
inclined to stay in bed next day. But for all that, it is 
great fun for the young folks and gives them one of the 
happiest days of their lives. 


British Colonies in Australia 
and South Africa. 


ENGLAND, as you know, has 
j colonies much larger than her¬ 
self—Canada, Australia and 
South Africa and in other parts of 
the world. So let us now take 
a glance at what the little boys 
and girls are doing in the rest of 
the earth where the people are 
mostly English and where our own language is spoken. In 
Australia, the school-life is of course very much like that in 
England, and the same may be said of all English colonies. 
In Australia, the school-hours are usually of the same length 
as in England, but somewhat differently divided. There is 
a longer intermission at mid-day, sometimes as much as two 
hours, and lessons then continue farther into the afternoon. 
From twelve until two being the hottest part of the day, this 
is a pleasant arrangement. Moreover, it allows plenty of 
time for the pupils at day-schools to dine, mid-day dinner 
being very common in the colonies. 

There are now excellent schools of all sorts in all the 
large Australian cities. The colonies were in possession of a 
system of public schools some years before England had be¬ 
gun her scheme of national education. Every town of any 
importance has also its grammar-school or high school. 

52 







BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 


53 


Less attention, perhaps, is paid to modern languages, the 
near neighborhood of France and Germany to England ren¬ 
dering the French and German languages more necessary to 
the English than it is to the colonists. 

Tutors and governesses are not common in Australia— 
at least not in the cities. Almost all boys and girls go to 



PLAYING IN THE BOATS. 

school either as day scholars or boarders. The schools are 
usually large and roomy buildings; lofty and airy rooms being 
a necessity in a warm climate where people are gathered to¬ 
gether in numbers. The playgrounds, too, are often large 
and spacious places. We noted one in particular. It was 
planted with beautiful willow-trees, perhaps a dozen in all, 




























































54 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 



which made the whole place shadowy and cool in the hot, 
summer noon-days. Not only was this grateful and refresh¬ 
ing to us boys in play-time, but we reaped the benefit of the 
shady playground sometimes also during school-hours. For 
it not infrequently happened on warm afternoons that some 
one of the masters would take his class out into the play¬ 
ground, and carry on the 
lesson of the hour under 
the shadow of the wil¬ 
lows, to the immense 
refreshment of both mas¬ 
ter and scholars. - Boys 
and girls who have never 
known school in such 
heat can hardly realize 
how difficult it often is 
to pay close attention to 
lessons when the ther¬ 
mometer is standing at, 
say, 85° in the shade. 

Oh, how heavy and 
drowsy they get over 
Caesar and Livy on these 
long, warm afternoons! 

How slowly they drag 
through the construing, 

helped at every second word by a patient, much-enduring 
master, himself struggling hard against the oppressive in¬ 
fluences of the sleepy air! 

But the master is kind and considerate. He makes and 
keeps to this rule—whenever the mercury touches 90° he 
dismisses the school for the afternoon. And then with what 


WORKING IN THE GARDEN. 




















































55 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 



A FAMILY OF NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA. 





































































5<5 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA. ETC. 


glee they fling aside books, slates and pens, and with a 
shout rush into the playground 1 The rest of the day is spent 
in the fields, on the breezy hills or on the waters of the lakes 
and rivers. 

On the stations—that is, the large sheep and cattle 
farms far up in the country—it is more common to find tutors 
and governesses. Here the morning hours are spent 
in study; the afternoon is given up to riding, rambling in 
the forest, and other pastimes, in which both teachers and 
scholars share. Bush boys and gills very soon become 
expert riders, learn to catch, bridle, and saddle their own 
ponies, and to become independent in everything connected 
with horses. 

The girls learn to ride equally well with the boys. 
Indeed, if one is to ride at all in the Australian hunt, one 
must ride well, for the roads are very rough—mere bridle 
paths usually; and the “open” is blocked by fallen logs, 
clumps of trees and low brushwood, among which it re¬ 
quires skill and nerve to steer your steed. 

Bush boys learn to shoot also at an early age, there 
being usually plenty of game of different kinds on the sta¬ 
tions—kangaroo, opossums, bandicoot, wild duck, parrots, 
and other birds of many varieties. Boys go into the woods 
and bush to study natural history, and many tales might 
be told of adventures which have occurred through lads 
wandering too far. So long as they do not roam about 
all is well, for to be lost in the bush is a terrible fate, 
as rescue is almost hopeless. The natives have also to be 
dreaded. They will attack a station if any of their friends 
have been ill-treated and hurt. Then the people at the 
station must look to themselves, for the spears will come 
thickly, and even fire arms may not avail the defenders 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETO. 


57 


against such a crowd of “blacks.” The “boomerang” in 
the hand of the native is a most dangerous weapon. It 
is a flat curved piece of wood, which, when thrown prop¬ 
erly, describes almost a circle, hits the object aimed at and 
returns to the person who threw it. Bush boys acquire a 
self-reliance and independence which are often of the great¬ 
est value, as you will have already imagined. Let me tell 
you of a true incident illustrative of this. Two boys, whom 
we shall call Willie and Jack, set off one fine morning 
from the head station in company with a stockman, an old 
servant of their father’s. They rode on merrily through 
the bush till they were many miles from their dwelling 
house. Suddenly, while riding down a steep and rugged 
gully, the stockman’s horse shied and threw his rider heav¬ 
ily to the ground. The boys immediately dismounted, and 
found that old Joe (that was the name of the man) was 
so badly hurt that he could not move, and so shaken that 
he was able to speak only in a low voice. 

The two lads who were just entering their teens, 
were at first a good deal frightened, but presently began 
to consider what was to be done It was decided that 
Jack should ride back to the head station for help, and 
that Willie should remain and watch by Joe. So Jack re¬ 
mounted and set off, and Willie’s watch began. It was now 
late afternoon, and the sun was sinking. Presently Joe 
opened his eyes and murmured “water” and Willie brought 
a little water in his hat from a creek close by and moist¬ 
ened the dry lipc. 

The season was autumn, and the air grew chill with 
the sun down. Willie kindled a fire and began to chafe the 
wounded man’s cold hands, endeavoring to cheer him with 
Kind and hopeful words. Finding that Joe still remained 

•a n-' 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 

cold, he took off his coat, and spread it gently over him, 
and made him as snug and comfortable as he could under 
the circumstances. 

The stars came out, the wind blew keener, and the forest 
grew very lonely; nothing broke the deep stillness save now 
and then the melancholy cry of the plover or the curlew, and 
the sigh of the wind among the gum-trees. The hours went 
slowly by, and Willie’s heart sank lower and lower. He 
was very cold, and bodily cold itself depresses the heart and 
courage. Five hours thus passed, and still no sign of help 
came. At last an idea struck Willie. He took a blazing 
brand from the fire, walked some distance in the direction 
in which he knew Jack and those with him must come, lit a 
small fire, walked on again for about a quarter of a mile, 
and kindled another blaze. In this way he made a line of 
fires, and then retraced his steps to Joe’s side, observing, 
with satisfaction, that his fires were all blazing brightly, 
and would serve to guide his friends more readily to the spot. 

In about another hour Willie heard the sound of ap¬ 
proaching wheels, and, a moment after, the voices of his 
father and brother. They had a light four-wheeled vehicle, 
with rugs and shawls, and thus the wounded stockman was 
conveyed safely back to the homestead. His leg had been 
badly broken; but in time he recovered from his hurt, and 
never did he forget the service which little Willie had 
rendered him. 

The children on Australian stations, and especially the 
girls, are very fond of pets, and some of these would suffi¬ 
ciently surprise American boys and girls. A tame kangaroo, 
for instance, feeding and hopping about in the vicinity of 
a house, is strange enough to an unaccustomed eye, but it 
is a very pretty sight 


The Filipino’s friend, constant companion, and most useful beast of burden. This picture shows the beautiful tropical trees and plants which grow in such 

Q^pjl^ and kind, he is the pet of the children, and loved by them all, abundance throughout th$ islandt 









One of the children leaves the room. Another makes up some funny charge against him, and, when he returns, he is placed on the stool to guess who accused 

him. Every wrong guess requires a forfeit, but when he guesses correctly, the accuser must take his place. 










A KANGAROO HUNT BY NATIVE AUSTRALIANS. 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 



\ 










































60 BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 

Snakes still abound in Australian bush, and bush-bred 
boys are often very fearless in the pursuit of these pests. 
The dead snake is sometimes suspended in a cleft stick, 
and thus brought home in triumph across the shoulder of 
his captor. We once knew a boy who kept a piece of 
flat board, about a foot long and an inch broad, upon 
which he used to make a nick with his knife for every 
snake he killed. In this way he covered the whole stick 
with nicks, and every nick meant a snake less in the world. 

Almost all the games and sports pursued by the Eng¬ 
lish boys and girls are known and practiced also in Aus¬ 
tralia, but some are in greater favor than others. Climate, 
in a large measure, determines this. In England football 
is at least as popular a g?me with boys as any other 
you could name, but in Australia, though football is com¬ 
ing to be played more and more, it stands no chance be¬ 
side cricket, being less suited to a warm climate. 

Cricket is certainly the most popular game with these 
boys, and after that I should say rowing and riding were 
the sports most in favor. Both these latter amusements 
are enjoyed under very favorable conditions, owing to the 
long stretches of uninterrupted fine weather, when it is 
possible to be out in the open air, on horseback or on the 
water, from day-break to sun down. Many girls become 
very good rowers in Australia, and equally graceful and 
fearless riders. In all the country districts a pony or horse 
may be kept at a slight cost. In towns, the expense is, 
of course, greater, but even in towns Australian boys and 
girls manage to get more riding than we do in our cities, 
where horse exercise is possible only to people in posses¬ 
sion of large means. 

What I have been telling you about the life of boys and 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 61 

girls in Australia applies almost equally to New Zealand 
and Tasmania, which make up the Australian group of colo¬ 
nies. The climate of the latter is colder than that of the main 
island, but there is never ice thick enough for skating and 
rarely enough snow on the ground for snowballing. 

And now we shall take a glance at the English children 
in South Africa. The home-life of children in the remoter 
districts of Cape Colony and South Africa generally partakes 
of the freedom and open air character which distinguishes 
Canadian pioneer life; but many of the pastimes which 
Canadian boys and girls enjoy cannot be engaged in in Africa 
by reason of its warmer climate. On the South African 
farms it is common to have black servants about the place, 
negroes or bush-men. These, when treated kindly, often 
make good-enough servants, and become very much attached 
to the young people of the household. They teach the boys 
to fish and hunt, to yoke the oxen, and even to milk the 
cows, as well as many secrets of wood-craft and farm-life 
useful in colonial country districts. 

This yoking the oxen takes some time, and requires 
considerable skill. The animals are not always the most 
obedient creatures in the world, and a stout “jambok,” or 
whip—a cruel instrument—is used to keep them in order. 
The wagon-loading, too, is no child’s play. Every one 
possesses a wagon, and when going up-country from Cape 
Town the wagon must contain all necessaries. A first-rate 
wagon is an expensive affair, but very serviceable, and often 
requires a dozen oxen to draw it. The wheels are strong, 
the harness, or treck-tow, of buffalo hide, and very strong. 
The proper manner of harnessing is important to the colo¬ 
nist, and the young men have to make themselves ac¬ 
quainted with these very necessary proceedings. 


62 BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETC. 

The boys must be careful when they decide to camp 
out for water is necessary for the animals. The camp is 
formed so that the wagon, and sometimes its contents, form 
a protection, which is necessary because of wild animals 
and natives. The start up-country from Cape Town is al¬ 
ways interesting, but one must be a good horseman to pro¬ 
ceed with comfort and rapidity in Cape Colony. 

People who live in Cape Colony would, as a rule, pre¬ 
fer to travel in one of these great useful wagons than in a 
vessel by sea from port to port. And yet these land jour¬ 
neys behind the great team of oxen of the color of red bricks 
were often attended with considerable danger. We will 
conclude this article by telling you of an adventure which 
befell some young people who were sent by wagon from 
Cape Town to another part of the South African colonies. 

During such a journey as this the wagon had to pass 
along “roads” which, as you may imagine, were very differ¬ 
ent from our well-made straight, macadamized highways. 
It had also to cross streams and rocky chasms, and the 
conveyance in which the poor children were was jolted 
about in a most unpleasant manner. 

The wagon was driven by a Hottentot, who went on 
for some time very well, and managed wonderfully. A 
nurse or attendant accompanied the children, who were 
both very happy; they sang songs and laughed and chat¬ 
tered while the heavy oxen pulled the wagon up dangerous 
places and down great hills, sometimes even jumping over 
the big ruts and little watercourses. 

At length the driver looked puzzled. He had lost his 
way! But the children had no anxiety, though the attend¬ 
ant had. and when at last the wagon came to a steep place. 


BRITISH COLONIES IN AUSTRALIA, ETO. 


63 


and had to go round a rocky point, the nurse pulled the 
little girl and boy out. 

It was fortunate she did so. In another minute the 
wagon, oxen, and all the contents of the wagon went tum¬ 
bling over the cliff, down, down through the trees; the poor 
oxen trying in vain to save themselves as they fell into the 
ravine below. They were all killed, and lay in a heap at the 
bottom of the cliff. 

The children had to walk and be carried for three days' 
nearly starving, but after many troubles and much suffering, 
they met some people in a wagon who fortunately came from 
the farm of which the poor children were in search. The 
travelers were quickly taken up and fed- -the poor children 
were half dead, but care and rest revived them. 

The whole tale would make quite a long story, but the 
children arrived safely at last, and very thankful, you may be 
sure, that they had not fallen over the precipice with the 
wagon and the unfortunate oxen. So you see traveling in 
Cape Colony has its dangers as well as railway traveling in 
other countries. 


Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 


WEDEN and Norway are so 
near together that the manners 
and the customs of their inhab¬ 
itants are very similar. It must, 
however, be borne in mind that 
the young Norwegians are more 
accustomed to the sea than the 
Swedes, and swim about like fish 
in their Fiords, or bays. 

It will be interesting to us 
to learn what we would be called 
in Sweden. It would be barn , 
Swedish cradles. which is not unlike the Scottish 

bairn . A boy is pojke , pronounced ftoyk . A little boy is 
gossc ) not unlike goose, A g\v\,Jlicka; a maiden, mo. Thus 
we can imagine Swedish parents speaking to their children. 
Their Christian names are numerous, as they have one for 
every day in the year, and many of them are very high-sound¬ 
ing. The peasants like grand names for their little ones, 
such as Adolph, Adricin, Gotfried, Gustavus, for boys; and 
Josephina, Thora, Ingeborg, for girls; and if they have no name 
prepared, they seek one in the almanac for the particular day 
of baby's birth. It is baptized the next Sunday, and taken to 




























































































SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 65 

church by the godmother, who provides the christening-gar¬ 
ments, which are often trimmed with colored bows; whilst 
the infant has beads round its neck, and wears a cap with 
very little border. The clergyman holds it well over the font, 
and pours water over the back of the head three times, then 
wipes it with a towel. As the baby is swathed in six-inch¬ 
wide bandages, so that it cannot move its legs, and sometimes 



GOING TO SCHOOL IN WINTER. 

not even its arms, it is obliged to lie very quiet during this 
ceremony. 

The people have their reasons for this swathing, the first 
of which is that they think it makes the limbs grow straight, 
the second that it turns baby into a compact bundle to carry. 
When thus bundled up, infants have been said to resemble 
































66 SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 

the tail of a lobster, or even its whole body. In the north 
they are often hung from a long, springy pole stuck in the 
wall, to be out of the way; and, being by nature quiet, they 
are supposed not to mind it. Their cradles, which are very 
simple, are also often suspended by a spiral spring from the 
roof, which must be more comfortable than the pole. Every 
time the baby moves the spring pole moves with him, and 
except when asleep he spends his time bobbing up and down. 
In Lapland, a country in the north of Sweden and Norway, 
the people take these “swaddlings” to church. But instead 
of carrying them into church they make a hole in the snow 



SCHOOL RECESS. 


outside in the churchyard, and bury them in it, leaving a 
small opening for breathing purposes. The babies are kept 
splendidly warm, while their parents within the sacred build¬ 
ing have their beards frozen to their fur coats by the freezing 
of their own breaths. 

As soon as a peasant boy can walk, he is put into trous¬ 
ers, buttoned outside his jacket; and these are so baggy be¬ 
hind that it is often funny to see him for they once belonged 
to his father, but were cut off at the legs, and simply drawn 
























SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 


6 7 


round the boy’s waist, without reducing their size. Add to 
this that the feet are shod either with little jack-boots or 
wooden shoes, and we have a strange picture. Their stock¬ 
ings either have leather heels or no heels at all, so that the 
mother is spared the trouble of mending them. Neither has 
she much labor with their heads, the hair of which is cropped 
as closely as possible. The girls also wear wooden shoes; 
but they have gingham kerchiefs or caps on their heads, 
frocks down to their heels, and quaint pinafores. 

In spite of their head-gear, they are much celebrated for 
the beauty of their hair, which they wear plaited in a long 
tail down their backs. They sometimes cut it off and sell it, 
and then let it grow again. The young gentlemen and 
ladies dress much as the English do, and are extremely 
neat and clean. 

In the country the children have few toys. A little girl 
of seven had never seen a doll until one was given her by 
another little girl who was more fortunate, and she almost 
cried with joy over it. Her astonishment at a doll’s house 
may be imagined. 

While the poor children make their feasts out of doors 
in the summer, by arranging broken crockery surrounded by 
leaves and putting their cakes upon it, or squeezing red cur¬ 
rants and cranberries through muslin to make wine, those in 
better circumstances have always a doll’s house. This they 
keep in excellent order. There is a real cooking-range in 
the kitchen, and when visitors come, they amuse themselves 
by preparing coffee, boiling potatoes, making pancakes, or 
puddings of apples, grated bread, sugar, and the like. This 
teaches them to be little housewives; for in time, when 
grown up, they will be expected to practice all the lessons 
they have learned when young, whether at home or at school. 


68 SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 

The winters are very long and severe in Sweden, with 
often snow on the ground from November till April; so the 
little Swedes must be much indoors, except when they 
sledge on wooden things called kalke. They draw all sorts 
of things upon it, and employ it to take their books and din¬ 
ners to school. You may be sure they are well wrapped 
when they use the kalke , being muffled up in warm jackets 
and hoods, and knitted gloves with only a thumb, like 
babies’ gloves, for they have no fancy to be frost-bitten. 
Nearly all the Norwegians can coast on the narrow strips of 
wood six feet long called skees, of which we have shown a 
picture elsewhere. They can go very fast over the snow 
on these, which are the same as our little cousins in 
Canada use, 

When old enough, all peasant children must go to 
school during part of the year. They are excused while the 
harvest and potato-digging are in progress, because they 
help their parents at those times, but at all other times they 
are sent to school. 

In connection with the day-schools, there is one day set 
apart to teach the girls to sew, knit spin, and weave, and the 
boys to make baskets, tubs, wooden spoons, &c., all of 
which they can follow up in the long winter evenings, and 
which will be of use to them in after life. Also in summer 
the boys have small gardens, where they are taught to sow 
seeds, and are told about the different kinds of grain and 
grasses. The children are very industrious and willing to 
learn. 

The country churches in Sweden do not have Sunday- 
schools, as a rule; but here and there good ladies assemble 
the children at their houses or elsewhere on Sundays, to 
learn the Scriptures and sing hymns. Such is their desire to 



SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 


69 


learn that they are known to trudge five or six miles for an 
hour’s teaching, and their behavior is such as would be seen 
in few of our Sunday-schools. They do not care much for 
their own church music, but they seem to like some of our 
hymns which have come into use. 

They are made church members at fifteen, and before 
the ceremony takes place they go for a long time, once or 
twice a week, to be prepared by their clergyman. He always 
confirms his own flock, and they then partake of the Lord’s 
Supper. The girl’s wear black dresses, white aprons, and 
white kerchiefs on their heads at their confirmation. 

Afterwards a girl may wear long dresses, and in the 
higher classes she is usually presented with a gold ring, and 
introduced into society. 

The pastor questions the children in church. They 
stand round him, as he walks in and out amongst them, hav- 
ing a good eye upon such as are heedless or careless. But 
they are usually too anxious to learn not to attend to his 
teaching. The parents remain to listen to their answers, so 
they have a twofold reason to be good. 

After they have been taken into church membership 
working boys are ready to engage in work of some kind. 
The young Swedes begin life by obtaining a character from 
their clergyman, which is called a ftrest betyg, as well as one 
from their school master or mistress, known as a betyg. By 
these betygs a child can be traced from birth to death, as they 
carry them from place to place. The young people must, 
therefore, take care not to have anything of a bad kind writ¬ 
ten on their betygs. A story is told of a school-boy who 
played a trick on his master, and the master paid him back 
by writing it on his betyg. 

As there are only as many people in the whole of Swe- 


70 


SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 


den as there are in New York, the poor can be better cared 
for. Orphan children are sent by the poor law guardians to 
be boarded in different families, and they are always kindly 
treated. One day a lady, driving over a lonely road, saw a 
poor woman crawling to open a gate for her. Inquiries were 
made, little visits paid and comforts sent, until the weary 
woman at length died. Pier two boys were placed by the 
parish with two farmers, while her little girl of three was 
taken or “boarded” by a young married woman, who had 
a baby of her own. It was the pride and pleasure of this 
kind foster-mother to take the little girl every three months 
to the good lady who had rescued her, and proudly to ex¬ 
hibit her, dressed like a little old woman, with her dead 
mother’s black silk kerchief on her head. 

The children of the upper and middle classes are very 
well-educated, and have much the same course of study as we 
have. They learn and speak English as well as other lan¬ 
guages. They are very polite, and bow and curtsey when 
they enter a room. There is a pretty custom observed by 
all: after a meal, each guest thanks the host and hostess, and 
even little children are taught to go up to their parents and 
thank them, at the same time kissing their hands. They 
usually stand at the table when at their meals. 

All ranks in both countries are industrious, and if the 
peasant maidens spin and weave, the young ladies make the 
finest crochet and lace trimmings to edge the sheets and pillow¬ 
cases, sometimes woven on their father’s loom, for much is 
still done by hand which with us is done by machinery. If a 
little girl is called by her mother to help with the cooking she 
never once thinks of saying, “Why? mamma,” or “I’ll come in 
a minute,” for she flies at once to do whatever is wanted of 
her. She is very proud when she is allowed to help. 


SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 7 1 

Name-days, birth-days, and Christmas Eve are the great 
festivals for the young people. On the two former the table 
is tastefully wreathed with evergreens, and the bouquets and 
presents nicely arranged upon them. Sometimes the child 
finds them ready for her when she awakes in the morning. 
The birthday cakes are eaten with coffee in the afternoon. 
They are a sort of sweet bread flavored with saffron, and with 
the initials of her name baked in it. But there are also light 
sponge-cakes covered with spun sugar-candy. Even in the 
depth of winter friends carry a few flowers, grown in pots, 
when they go to visit them. 

Importance is attached to the blessings by the aged. 
As in the Bible we read of Isaac blessing Jacob, so in Norway 
the grandfather will bless the little child brought to him, and 
no doubt the prayer of the righteous man is heard. The 

scene is a solemn one, not to be forgotten by those who have 

# 

witnessed it. 

But Christmas Eve is the grand festival of the year, both 
with rich and poor. In the cottages the house is cleaned, the 
Sunday clothes are put on, white curtains are hung, and the 
tables are covered with white cloths. Everyone has been 
working for weeks before at the presents, which are some¬ 
times thrown into the rooms so that the givers may be 
guessed at, not known. Sad and poor indeed must be the 
person who gets no Christmas gift. Thus, all through Chris¬ 
tendom, “Goodwill to men” is shown when we celebrate the 
birth of our Saviour. 

At four o’clock on Christmas morning there is service 
in the country churches, which, for the only time in the year, 
are then lighted with candles. It generally happens that 
there is frozen snow enough for sledging, and whole families 
crowd their sledges or sleighs and drive many miles to 


72 


SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 



CHRISTMAS CUSTOM ll* NORWAY, FEEDING THE BIRDS 






























































































SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 73 

church, while the bells “jangle across the snow.” But there 
are no decorations, probably because of the extreme cold, 
and the scarcity of evergreens—the cold must be felt to be 
imagined, for few country churches are warmed. v For Christ¬ 
mas decorations, however, they have the lofty pines covered 
with frozen snow, and the birches glittering with sleet. In 
the midst of them are the frozen lakes, over which glide the 
sledges, and upon which look down the moon and stars as if 
the Ice King were holding his court. 

On Christmas day the Swedes have no turkey and 
plum pudding, as we have. The poor feast on salt fish, 

with horse-radish sauce, salt pork, rice, milk, and cakes; the 

rich on various dainties. They make holiday from Christ¬ 
mas to Twelfth Day, or at any rate, they do as little work 
as they can. All Christian countries keep this holy season, 
and, whatever their different manners, they celebrate it with 
reverence and joy 

There is a very pretty custom among the farmers 
and others. On Christmas morning the farm-wife carries 
bread from the granary to give among the poor; while the 

farmer places a sheaf of corn on a pole for the birds. The 

pole is sunk in the snow-covered ground, and left for the 
cold and hungry winged creatures, and you may be sure 
they enjoy their Christmas cheer as much as the young 
people. 

The children have many games which are much like 
ours, and these they play indoors at Christmas-tide. They 
sing strange nursery rhymes while they play, and our little 
folk may just fancy them in their very cold northern homes, 
swaying to and fro, and singing pretty songs, which the fol¬ 
lowing is a translation:— 


74 SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 

A LULLABY. 

A Magpie sat on the frosty shed, 

Shrieking in spiteful glee : 

“If baby’s not good to-day,” it said, 

“She shall taste of the birchen tree.*’* 

“Oh, naughty Magpie,” baby replied, 

“Pray sing not so of me, 

For I have been good and have not cried, 

So need not the birchen-tree.” 

Baby shall have a wagon of gold, 

And in it she oft shall ride ; 

A little whip in her hand shall hold, 

And crack it on every side. 

Of cows and calves she has quite a store, 

And of fowls and ducks and pigs ; 

Of serving men and maids a score, 

With cats and dogs, merry as grigs. 

Here is another child song' 

Mother’s own little crow 
Out for a ride would go, 

But found no one to drive her : 

This way, that way, the carriage would pitch, 

Backwards, forwards, and down in the ditch, f 

The next best holiday to Christmas is Fastilevn, which 
comes on the first Monday in Lent. On this day the 
children are allowed to do whatever they please; the rest 
of the year their parents can be as strict as they wish to 
be. Now the little ones eat all the cakes, buns, and sweets 
they like and do anything else which is forbidden them at 
other times. I am sure you cannot guess what a strange 
custom the children have for that day. They all whip their 
mothers. Of course, it is all in fun. They take long twigs 
and fasten many colored ribbons and tissue paper around 
them. The first thing in the morning the children, 
laughing all the time, apply these fancy switches, following 

* This must mean the “rod In pickle," kept for naughty children. 

t This is sung by nurses to their charges, with appropriate action, and when “down in the ditch" come* 
baby is tumbled over and tickled 


SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 75 

their mother about until the last piece of paper is gone 
from each switch. Fastilevn, with its old custom, is sup¬ 
posed to make up for all the whippings the children receive 
throughout the rest of the year. Denmark, which is south 
of Sweden and Norway, is inhabited by the same race of 
people and is much the same in its customs. But it has 
some ways of its own also, of which we may speak. 

When we go into a Danish middle-class house we find 
everything neat, and tidy, and clean. The drawing-room is 
like our own at home. It has pictures, a few albums, books 
and neat furniture, but there is no carpet. We do not re¬ 
member any carpets in the Danish house we visited. In the 
next room to the reception-room was a study, and here five 
young ladies (sisters) were being taught by their governess. 
Even the youngest could speak and understand English, 
Danish, and French, for the Danes, like the Russians, can 
speak many languages. 

In a Danish family the children have the “run of the 
house.” The mother is almost the slave of her children. 
She educates them, and and assists the older ones. She 
looks after the house and arranges everything connected with 
the children’s schooling and dress. In Denmark there is 
generally no nursery. 

Baby may perhaps be carried about by nurse, but after a 
while she goes and then the mother has all the care of her 
children. They are taught manners, and their games are 
watched over by “mamma” and “papa,” for baby sleeps in 
her parents’ room. So the Danish child grows up directly un¬ 
der her parents’ eyes at meals and at all other times of 
the day. 

When our little Dane is about six years old he goes to 
school; girls and boys are both taught early to read, write 


7<5 SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 

and cipher. Then the higher school is sought, and the chil¬ 
dren trot off before nine o’clock, to remain till three or four 
o’clock at school, so you see there is not much time allowed 
for games, though no doubt the Danish boy and girl have 
their sports and fun like children everywhere. 

When they leave school the boys go into business, and 
perhaps assist their father in his work; the girls stay at home 
until some suitors come and carry them away to homes of 
their own, where they can put in practice the lessons they 
have learnt, and profit by the good example they have had 
from their parents. 

Denmark is rich in stories and legends of “trolls,” or 
fairies, which come up and do all kinds of funny things. 
Then we hear of “nisses,” or sprites, and every good Danish 
farm-wife will put out some porridge or other food for 
the nisses. 

These sprites, as well as the “trolls,” are sometimes full 
of mischief, and will not—according to common belief—let 
butter be churned when they have not been well treated. 

The Danes are very careful about their bread; they look 
upon it as God’s gift. An old legend is related of a girl who 
was carrying some loaves one day, and coming to a muddy 
place, she could not cross without dirtying her fine shoes, so 
she put the loaves in the mud and walked across it. 

But what do you think happened to her? She had 
hardly stepped upon the loaves when they began to sink; 
and they sank, and sank, down, down to the very bottom of 
the mire; and the girl, it is said, was swallowed up, because 
she was so wicked and tread upon the bread. 

In the spring in Denmark the girls go out and listen to 
the cuckoo. Then they kiss their hands to the bird, and say, 
“Cuckoo, when shall I marry?” Then the polite bird answers 


SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 


77 


“cuckoo” several times, and the number of times he cries 
“cuckoo” indicates the number of years that will pass before 
the girl will be married. So they say! 

When you pass through Jutland, one of the Danish 
Isles, you will see, as we did, the storks in the chimneys of 
the farm-houses. The birds are supposed to bring “luck” to 
the home. 

At Christmas time, according to a belief in Denmark, all 
the cattle sit up in their stalls. At twelve o’clock on Christ¬ 
mas Eve the cows rise up to “salute the happy morn,” and 
pay respects to Christmas day. Then cows and all the animals 
on the farm are well fed; and if they do not have turkey or 
roast goose, beef and plum pudding they get enough, and the 
dear old dog in the yard has bread given him as a great treat. 
He is then let loose, for he will not bite anyone on Christ¬ 
mas day, which is kept as a universal feast-day, as with us. 

In Copenhagen we find a game called Montagne Russ, 
or Russ-bahn. This consists of two wooden towers. Be¬ 
tween these towers two railway lines are laid, not regularly 
curving, but with a great wave in the middle. The truck 
which runs on this “Russian Railway” is furnished with an 
arm-chair in which there is room for two. The lads and 
lasses seat themselves, and take care to hold tight. The 
truck is pushed over the brink of the slope and down it darts 
at a tremendous pace; then up and down the curved wave of 
line in the centre, and in half a moment it rushes up the op¬ 
posite and final slope to the other tower, where the passengers 
alight. If they want to return they must go by the other 
line, which runs alongside. 

This is a popular amusement, and numbers seem to en¬ 
joy it. The scenic railways in our amusement parks are 
copied from these slides in Copenhagen. 


/s 


SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK 


The Danish child is, perhaps, hard worked, but he is 
never poor. His parents must have him educated up to 
fourteen, and then he must go to work and help them. The 
girls keep little pots of flowers in the windows of the farm¬ 
houses, and very pretty they look. The Danes are well 
educated and have much self respect. They make good use 
of their time when they are young, and get the advantage of 
this in their old age. 


Holland and Belgium. 


OSY-CHEEKED, round-faced, fair¬ 
haired children of Holland, we 
hardly know whether to introduce 
the boys and girls of our own coun¬ 
try to you in the winter or the sum¬ 
mer. The spring and autumn we 
shall avoid, for then a great part of 
your kingdom is like a large lake or 
sea, dotted with little patches of 
marshy land, each of them just large 
enough to hold a windmill, a willow-tree, and a forlorn-look¬ 
ing cottage, or a mound or two to which you can fly for 
safety in the event of a flood. 

This is not cheerful-looking, and we should like our 
readers to see you at your best—in the summer-time, perhaps, 
when you are sailing your tiny boats on the canals, or ponds, 
or lakes; or when you are playing before your clean, red-tiled 
green or blue shuttered cottages; or are wandering in the 
green meadows among the sleek black-and-white cattle; or 
are assembling on the little pier of your native village to 
wash your pans, and jars, and dishes, and baskets, and await 
the arrival of the boats that bring you in stores of fish; or are 

79 






So 


HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


sailing down the rive r s on the rafts which have been your 
homes from your birth. In winter, too, they would, we think, 
sometimes envy you when all your ponds and lakes and 
canals are covered with thick ice, and you put on your skates 
and skim swiftly along like so many water-birds; for, com¬ 
pared to yourselves, American girls and boys, who are so 

fond of sliding and skating, get 
so little of these amusements. 

What fine fun to skate to 
school and back, to skate to 
market for apples and nuts, to 
skate in companies—consisting 
of five or six rows, with five or 
six boys and girls in each row, 
all taking hands—to skate to a 
neighboring village or town— 
to have skating-matches, skat¬ 
ing-games, skating-clubs! 

Yes! decidedly, Holland 
must be visited in the winter, 
and the '‘Vyver”—the beauti¬ 
ful pond or lake in the centre of the Hague, the wealthiest 
town in Holland—which we thought so lovely in summer, 
when majestic swans were sailing on it, and many-colored 
ducks and other water-fowl were swimming about, is still lov- 
Mer when the trees around are heavy with sparkling snow, and 
long icicles are hanging from rock and grotto, and Court ladies 
in velvet and furs, and Court gentlemen, and the children of 
wealthy citizens, and simple school-boys and school-girls are 
all amusing themselves together on its polished surface. But 
before we begin to speak of girls and boys who are old 













HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


81 



enough to skate, we must tell you something about the very 
young children and the babies of Holland, and especially of 
a strange and pretty custom observed throughout the country. 
When the children of a family are told that they have 

a new 
brother 
or sister, 
they are 
not al- 
w a y s 
willing 
to wel¬ 
come it 
as they 
should. 
The 
young¬ 
est e s- 
pecially, 
who has 
been 
“baby” 


hitherto, feels rather hurt and considers 
the newcomer in the light of one who 
deserves to be pinched rather than kissed. 
Now, the good parents of Holland, who 
are very fond of their children, and try 
to spare them all unnecessary pain, have hit upon an excel¬ 
lent plan to make baby welcome. As he lies in his cradle, 
which is like the English one, they fill his little arms with 
trumpet-shaped bags brimful of little sweetmeats, and these 


FISHING IN SUMMER. 

























82 


HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


arc divided among* the children as baby’s presents. Baby 
continues to give these tiny bits of candy—which the 
children eat on bread and butter and are very fond of—for 
the space of six weeks, when he is supposed to have 
established his right to exist. 

Babies are dressed very much as in America, except 
that, in some cases, a queer old custom is held to of wrap¬ 
ping up their heads in three caps—one of cambric, another of 
silk, and a third of lace. 

The christening always takes place on a Sunday, and 
after the christening there is a grand dinner, to which all 
the relatives are invited. 

Birthdays are always celebrated in Holland and 
Belgium. Visits of congratulation are paid, presents and 
bouquets given, and if it be the birthday of father or mother, 
one of the children recites a piece of poetry, a copy of which, 
written on an ornamented piece of paper, is presented to the 
parents to keep. 

As a rule, children dine with the parents, but they are 
never allowed to use a knife. They take the fork in their 
right hand, and are taught to rest the left hand on the table 
by the side of the plate. 

What are the homes of the children of Holland and 
Belgium like? We shall describe a few. The wealthy in¬ 
habitants of The Hague live in villas, mansions, or palaces, 
where all the luxuries and splendors of the East are 
collected. They hold so-called Indian festivals, when 
houses and gardens are brightly lit up, when rich draperies 
cover walls and windows, when gold and silver plate is 
spread out on table and sideboard, when all the guests 
appear in splendid dresses and wear diamonds and pearls, 
and when great vases are filled with lovely flowers. 


HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


83 


A very different home has the raftsman, and yet I doubt 
if it has not more charms for children than the wealthy 
mansion. The raftsman lives on his raft with wife and 
children. The raft is composed of trunks of trees laid side 
by side, and bound tog-ether. On these, planks are laid and 
a pretty cottage of two stories is built, containing- sitting - 4 
room and bed-rooms; the windows are curtained, the 
shutters are gaily painted; there are even balconies round 
the cottage, full of plants and bright flowers. The rafts¬ 
man’s trade is to buy pots and kettles in Germany, and sell 
them in his own country. His children spend all their early 
life on these rafts, and pleasant it must be, as they float 
down the many canals through the prettily-wooded districts 
in Belgium or even in flat Holland, where there is always 
something of interest for them—the storks they love so well, 
the delicate heron, the water-fowl and the sea-birds that fly 
in flocks far inland to take baths in the lakes as a change 
from their wild ocean life. 

Then there is the usual home of the Dutch peasant boy 
and girl. The kitchen is the principal room, and very com¬ 
fortable it looks, with its red brick floor, strewn with fresh 
red sand, its brick hearth, its tiled walls, polished chairs and 
tables, and copper kettles and sauce pans, as bright as 
scrubbing can make them. 

The Dutch are very clean, and are obliged to be so, for, 
in their damp country, if they were not constantly rubbing 
and polishing, rust and mould would soon spoil their t 
houses, their furniture, and all their cooking utensils. The 
cleanest village in the world is said to be Brook or Brock. 
There, as in all Holland, it is dangerous to walk in the 
streets on Saturday without an umbrella and thick clogs, 
however fine the day may be; for water is being squirted on 



84 HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


and bucketfuls are being poured out 
being dashed on steps and pave- 

ment; 
and the 
d airies 
and cow- 
houses, 
which 
are fre¬ 
quently 
part of 

the dwelling-houses, are being 
thoroughly cleaned, though they 
were as clean as a new pin before, 
and the greatest care will scarcely 
keep one from a drenching. We 
pity the children of this village, 
for they are never allowed to 
come to the front of the house, for 
fear of soiling the steps or taking 
the polish off the railings, and their 
lives must be one unending wash¬ 
ing-day. But “boys will be boys,” 
and very likely they have their 
sports. 

Perhaps the strangest homes 
for children are to be found in the 
little village of Gheel, in Belgium, 
called the Craze Colony, so called 
from a legend. A certain Princess 
Dymphna, good and pious, was 


PLAYING WITH THE CAT. 


the front of each house, 
of each window, or are 


















































HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


8 


persecuted by her wicked relatives, and slain in this little 
coiner of Belgium. In due time Princess Dymphna was 
made a saint and the sick and the unfortunate flocked to 
the little chapel where she used to worship. Some lunatics 
who were among the number recovered their reason. Since 
that time each of the poor weavers who make up the vil¬ 
lage, has permission to receive into his family one lunatic. 
Being constantly with the children, playing with them, and 
working with them at 
the easy tasks allotted 
them, but, above all, 
being kindly and fa¬ 
miliarly treated by the 
family, these unfortu¬ 
nates, almost all of 
whom are gentle, soon 
recover. A touching 
tale is told of a German 
lunatic who had lost 
his reason from sud¬ 
denly losing his money 
and becoming poor. 

His host at Gheel died, 
and the family were 
left in great distress. 

The lunatic saw and 
understood the cause of the trouble in the household. Think¬ 
ing on the matter seemed to restore his reason; and the re¬ 
sult was that he calmly and quietly took the charge of the 
family on himself, worked for them, and supported them. 

In a country which has had so many artists, art is of 





A DUTCH FISHERMAN. 














86 


HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


course thought much of. In many schools the children are 
allowed to draw pictures on their slates for one hour every 
day, and if a child shows any talent he generally finds some 
one to help him on, or he works his way to fame by his own 
efforts. The dress of the Dutch and Belgian boys and girls is 
sometimes very quaint and pretty. The girls wear gaily-em¬ 
broidered bodices, red skirts, and buckled shoes, necklaces, 
and other ornaments. When they grow older they wear a 
kind of gold or silver helmet, a lace cap on the top of that, 
and sometimes a bonnet besides. The boys and men wear 
wide, baggy trousers, reaching to the knee, black worsted 
stockings, buckled shoes, jackets trimmed with large coins, 
many of them of gold and silver, and small felt caps. 

Some of the children’s amusements are much the same 
as in our own country. One of the favorite games, for in¬ 
stance, especially of the poorer children, is very similar to 
the American “Jacks,” only they call it “Knuckle bones.” 

On the Sunday before Whitsuntide the children rise 
very early, and the one who is dressed first goes to the dif¬ 
ferent bed-room doors, knocks, and says or sings:— 

Lazy Loon, 

Sleepy head, 

Lie a bed, 

Don’t get up till noon. 

The last to rise in the house, generally the father or 
mother, is expected to give every member of the household 
a special kind of hot bun, which is always prepared 
in readiness. 

Easter is celebrated by giving eggs; but the festival 
that all, more especially in Belgium, delight in the most, is 
Shat of Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas, the special patron 
saint of the children. 

. Santa Claus sends his presents done up in wonderful 


HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


87' 














































































































88 


HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 


disguises, or hidden in cabbages, turnips or pumpkins; or 
perhaps he will appear in person. Then he is laden with 
toys of all descriptions. While the children are gazing at¬ 
tentively at the toys and Santa Claus, papa in the back¬ 
ground contrives unseen to throw bonbons into the air, 
which fall among the children, and are supposed by them to 
descend from the skies. 

Now and then, when the children are growing too old 
and too wise to believe without doubt in Santa Claus, the 
parents or elder brothers and sisters adopt means to revive 
their faith. 

They dress the coachman or gardener in a white fur 
cloak, and place him on a white pony. They give him a 
long flaxen beard and wig, and place a huge bishop’s mitre 
on his head; and an immense gilt cross on his breast. Then 
they fill his arms with presents, and tell him to gallop 
round the house. 

The dogs begin to bark; the children rush to the win¬ 
dows and peep. 

Well! after all, Santa Claus is Santa Claus, for there 
he is, plainly to be seen in the moonlight, and, best of all, 
not empty-handed. Hurrah! for the presents, let them 
come from whom they will. The children are brave enough 
to go and receive their presents from Santa Claus himself, 
who bends gravely from the pony, and delivers them in si¬ 
lent dignity, but they do not trust themselves to stay near 

him too long. Back they go, to enter the enchanted room. 

/ 

to pick up the little figure of man or woman who stands on 
the door-mat with suspiciously bulged-out pockets, to search 
these pockets and the wide boots, to dive into the crowns of 
the hats and bonnets, or carefully to examine the many other 
hiding places for Santa Claus’ gifts. 


F ranee. 


us now take the train for Paris. 
What funny trains we do find 
in Europe. They are not at 
all like ours. Their carriages, 
as the cars are called, are of 
three kinds, first, second, and 
third-class, and each car is di¬ 
vided into little rooms which 
hold six, eight or ten persons. 
A door and two small windows 
are in each end of a compartment. The first and second 
classes have cushioned seats, but there are only wooden 
benches in the third. 

It would seem that travelers, especially those in the 
third class, find that the trains make them hungry. They 
love to picnic and very often we see them opening their lunch 
baskets and bringing out nice sandwiches and oranges and 
the time passes quickly until they reach their journey’s end. 

Now that we are in France, we must be careful to speak 
French and be very polite in our inquiries. Let us look 
around. 

Everywhere we see soldiers and men in uniforms, and we 
wonder why everything looks so warlike. But that is their 

89 



90 


STANCE 



way in Europe, and we must say that all the many colors, the 
shining helmets and glittering swords look very pretty in the 
sunlight and do much to brighten up the street scenes. 

All nations have their special traits not only in language, 
but also in character, costume, education, amusements, and 
in religion. These differences are seen even in infancy; so 
child-life in France and elsewhere has its distinctions both 

in the prince 
and the peas* 
ant. 

The baby 
and the nurse 
of a grand 
Parisian lady 
form a sight 
worth seeing. 
The nurse us¬ 
ually comes 
from Bur¬ 
gundy, and is 
a black-eyed, 
high-colored, 
round-faced 


SPINNING TOPS. 


woman, very 
picturesquely 
dressed. She 

wears neither bonnet nor hat, but a cap with a full border, hav¬ 
ing around it a puffing of handsome ribbon, the ends of 
which are so long that they sometimes reach to the bottom 
of her skirt; so that one is inclined to think the rank of the 
mistress is shown by the length of the ribbon-tails at the 
back of the servant’s head. 
































































































FRANCE 


9i 


Beneath these flowing ribbons is a long, round cloak, 
generally of the same color, which serves to shelter the in¬ 
fant. The cherry-color cloak and ribbons contrast prettily 
with the baby’s white dress. 

Education does not greatly differ from that in England, 
and is sometimes acquired at home, sometimes at school. 
Boys go early to the colleges, which are numerous, and in 
which the pupils wear a uniform. This resembles the dress 



A FRENCH RAILROAD TRAIN. 


of an American telegraph-boy, and is generally of dark blue 
with brass buttons, and has a red stripe down the side of the 
trousers. The cap is like a midshipman’s. But each college 
has something in the costume to distinguish it from its fel¬ 
lows. The pupils have every reason to be good students, 
and it is, indeed, hard for them to be idle, because their tutors 
and governors are constantly with them at work, at play, and 














































































































































































92 


FRANCE 


even while asleep. Rewards are offered for every new thing 
learned and the best students have hopes of being given a 
badge of honor. This is sought by young and old alike, 
and boys have sometimes ribbons on their breasts, of which 
they are very proud. Perhaps this helps to make them 
little men before their time, for they are always very 
polite, and behave as well as their elders. It is their 
custom, and that of all French people, to ask and reply 
to questions with the addition of Monsieur, Madame, or 
Mademoiselle, which renders their conversation far less 
abrupt than ours. 

Although the French are very lively and talkative, si¬ 
lence is strictly enforced during school-hours, and any pupil 
who chatters loses both play-time and reward. As morning 
school usually opens at eight o’clock and continues till 
nearly twelve, these hours of silence, save for the purposes 
of instruction are hard to keep but are not often broken. 

Girls are educated on the same principles. If they go 
to a day-school, they enter and leave silently, although there 
may be forty, fifty, or even sixty pupils. Where there is so 
large a number, the school is divided into two principal 
classes, which are again divided into four divisions each. 
The girls from five to twelve years of age fill those from the 
eighth to the fifth, and those from thirteen to eighteen are 
placed in the divisions from four to one. The idle pupil is 
kept in her division until she rises by industry; and so it is 
everywhere—perseverance wins the day. When the girls 
begin lessons they put on a black sarrau , or sort of smock- 
frock, to protect their garments from the ink. This reaches 
from the chin to the bottom of the skirt, and effectually 
keeps the dress from being soiled, but the rows of black 
robes make them look like a flock of crows* 



FRANCE 


93 


Children eat a great deal of bread and fruit, which they 

munch at all hours of the day, and are very fond of. The 

* 

poor children stand about the cafes and restaurants with a 
piece of bread in their hands, which they think tastes all the 
better for the fumes that proceed from these places, so that 
they may almost be said to eat through their noses. 

It is customary in Paris for the principals of the va¬ 
rious colleges and schools to take their pupils for recreation 



to the different large squares and gardens. Here they en¬ 
joy their various sports. Skipping- with a rope is much in 
favor among-st the girls; hoops, balls, and battledore and 
shuttlecock are much liked. They are also very fond of 
blind man’s buff, and there is a pretty g-ame which is played 
by children throwing- hoops by means of two long- sticks, 
from one to another, and catching- them on two other sticks. 
It is very graceful and used to be popular in English schools. 



















94 


FRANCE 


French children have many holidays. Thursday is the 
general one in all the schools. But they love New Year’s 
day the best, because that is a universal day of festival. 
Everybody visits everybody to give good wishes, and 
“kisses on both cheeks,” as is the French custom. Presents 
seem to fall from the skies, and poor indeed must be the 
child who has not one. On this day the boulevards, or 
streets edged with trees, are full of people, old and young, 
and everyone seems in good humor. The Zoological Gar¬ 
dens are full, 
for here the 
children never 
tire of the ani¬ 
mals, and love 
to watch the 
big ostrich 
pull the little 
carriage full 
of small 
youngsters. 
Truly it is a 
gala-day. 

So, too, is 
Paques, or 

Easter, with its shops full of Easter eggs, made of choc¬ 
olate, sugar, and what not, which contain all sorts of 
nice things and are sometimes as big as one’s head. 
Dolls in full dress, and elegant gifts of every sort come 
out of them. But they are scarcely as curious as the 
poissons d'Avril, or April fish. Instead of making “fools” 
on the i st of April, they make presents in France and 
call them “April fish.” Fish of every kind and size are 



o 




FRANCE 


95 


manufactured, chiefly of papier mache, and filled with all 
sorts of funny articles. A pink salmon, a silver trout, a 
gigantic crocodile will even attract the children, and cause 
them a great deal of amusement. 

In one way, the French girls are very fortunate. Their 
mothers train them from the beginning to please their future 
husbands, teach them how to take care of a home of their 
own and to make a success of this chief end in their lives. 

The young ladies are very particular about their 



dresses, and would rather spoil their games than then 
flounces. 

They, like the boys, have very elegant manners, and 
are full of life and ready wit. 

No French child is allowed to sit at the family table un¬ 
til he or she can behave and eat in a perfectly polite manner. 
It is bad manners there, no matter what your age, to leave 
uneaten a single morsel that you have allowed to be put on 
your plate. They thin k that this would imply that the food 












9 6 


FRANCE 


is not so good as it looked. All French children, even of 
the poorest classes, are neat and clean and tidy almost be¬ 
yond that of any other country. Though they may not 
have the pluck and fool-hardiness of our own children, they 
can teach us much of courtesy and politeness which makes 
life easier to live. “What perfume is to flowers, good breed¬ 
ing and gentle behavior are to children.” By being taught 
from their cradles and acting in a polite and thoughtful 
manner, they gradually become gentle and courteous, which 
in no way interferes with sturdy honesty or rugged strength 
of character. 

Automobiling is one of the favorite pastimes of the 
French, so to see the little country children, off we go at a 
rate that almost takes our breath away. We see no fences 
or bridges for miles. 

A baby has just been born in a town we pass through, 
the town doctor is hurrying to be sure that the child’s sex 
has not been wrongly stated to him. A few hours later, 
the father calls at the Mayor’s office, and, with at least two 
witnesses present, fills out a most important document—the 
certificate of baby’s birth and names. All through life there 
will be little he can do without it. He must show it when 
he wishes to marry, when he enters school, the church or 
the army, nor can he be buried without it. 

Before he can walk, even, he has learned to drink cider. 
The French children are great cider drinkers. It is a sour, 
bitter stuff, unlike our own, but apparently wholesome, for 
they can thrive upon it in hard work, and work they must 
as soon as they can walk. 

They rise very early all their lives and are earnest, in¬ 
dustrious children. They know nothing, as a rule, of the 
rest of the world, but they do know every flower that grows 


FRANCE 


97 


on their father's farm, every bee that hums about them, 
every bird that flies past, or nests in the branches of the 
trees. What they cannot see does not interest them. They 
believe some of the funniest things. They are all sure that 
soup made of melted candles and red wine will cure a cold. 
They all know a prayer that will cure measles, a prayer that 
will wipe off freckles, a prayer that will set a broken leg, a 
prayer that will sweeten a sour temper. These prayers will 
be devoutly repeated when the occasion arrives. They have 
forms of prayer to drive devils and foul spirits away or to 
cure an earache. We cannot help smiling at all this foolish¬ 
ness, but then remember that they have never been taught 
to know better. 

As we pass through the country towns, we see that every 
village has its large open square where nearly all the mar¬ 
keting is done out in the open air rather than in shops. 
Everything is sold here. Old clothes, iron locks, crockery, 
jewelry, furniture, geese, ducks, chickens, horses and cows, 
and all else that there is to be sold. Big umbrellas are 
stuck up to keep off sun and rain and it looks like a field of 
big mushrooms. 

Every village has its patron saint and in his honor 
every year a fete day is celebrated which visitors from far 
and near come to attend. Preparations are made for weeks 
beforehand, but the greatest attraction for the children is the 
fair. These fairs, as the French call them, move about the 
1 country in wagons like an old fashioned circus, always arriv¬ 
ing at a town for some special occasion. The owners live 
much like gypsies, selling all sorts of things, giving little 
plays, or doing tricks of strength. There are merry-go- 
rounds and shooting galleries. Boys try their skill throwing 
balls into the mouth of a painted figure and win, if they can 


98 


FRANCE 


do it, a wonderful knife that contains everything 1 from a 
corkscrew to a file. In the evening, there are fireworks and 
a torch-light procession up and down the streets which are all 
decorated with flags, wreaths, gay streamers and paper lan¬ 
terns. Rival bands blare at each other across the square and 
all is laughter and fun making. Often a regular circus will 
arrive at the same time and the fete will last over two or three 



THE CIRCUS IS COMING 


days. The finest events are saved up for the last day, and 
the children take part in many games especially prepared 
for them. 

Between two poles are hung a dozen or more buckets 
filled with water, all except one in which, however, there is 
a new five-franc piece. To each bucket is attached a string. 
A little boy, after he is blind-folded, is turned around a few 
times, and then he starts toward the line of strings, hoping 
to pull the one of the buckets holding the five-franc piece. 
It is hard to do and many times, down comes a pail full of 
water on his head while the watching crowd laugh and jeer 

































































































































































-3 

3 

p 

3 


M 

<T> 

Ct> 

r~t" 

in 

P 

3 

P* 

3 to 

CO 

o 

08 W 

5' w 


3 * 

in Si 
O ^ 

3t W 

<g. O 

fli <-+ ^ 

-3 ^ 

% 

C+ ^ k_H 

£. 3 * 2 

rt (ii q 

3s* a 

§ T > 

<5 3 2 

■*< p 

• (3 
O 
3 

C/3 


W 

t-l 

o 

> 


tr 

ft > 

a. *n 

o 

pr 

cn 

3* 

P 

3 

CT 
O 
'*< 
in 

pu 

<-\ 

P 

3 






































NEW YEAR S PARADE OF GERMAN CHILDREN 

Each boy and girl is dressed to represent one of the twelve months of the year. This pictures hows January 

leading the other months. 






PRANCE 


99 

to their hearts' content, The boy who finally succeeds is the 
hero of the occasion. 

Another “ stunt,” as we would say, is to extend a pole 
out over a pond or river. Fastened at regular spaces and 
pointed downward, are wooden pegs well greased. You can 
imagine how hard it is to swing from one to another of these 
pegs, out to the end where a bag of money is fastened. 
Many who try slip into the water to the intense amusement 
of the bystanders. Then there are diving and swimming 
matches and so the fun goes on until at last the tents are 
folded away, the wagons drive slowly off, but the memory of 
those happy days lives all through the following months 
while they plan for the one “ next year.” 

Now that we are traveling in an automobile, let us run 
over into the neighboring country of Germany and see what 
our little cousins there are like. 





Germany. 


N our account of child-life in Ger¬ 
many, as in other lands, it is best 
to begin at the beginning, and the 
beginning is, there and everywhere, 
the little baby. Fortunately, the 
German baby is a quaint and inter¬ 
esting little morsel of humanity, and 
is very well worthy of a few words 
about little him or her. In his own 
country he figures largely in all pic- 
german baby. ture-books, is seen in the baker’s 

shop-windows at Eastertime in the form of cakes, with two 

great currants for his eyes, and dangles in sugar from at 
least one branch of every Christmas-tree; besides being imi¬ 
tated for a variety of other purposes. 

He is wrapped up in a long, narrow pillow, which is 
turned up at the little feet, and tucked under the dimpled 
chin. Three bands of bright blue ribbon are, as shown in our 
picture, passed round this pillow in different places, and tied 
in large bows in front. In this state nothing of the baby is 
visible but the small round face, and that is encircled, and 
partly hidden, by a cap. 

This mode of swaddling has its advantages. 



IOO 

















GERMANY 


IOI 


Baby’s limbs are in no danger of being broken by an ac¬ 
cidental fall; he cannot scratch his little face to pieces with 
his sharp, rosy nails, after the manner of American babies; 
and he maybe placed on a table, a shelf, or the counter of a 
shop, like a plate of soup, or a loaf of bread, or a parcel of 
goods, or anything else which cannot move. The other side 
of the question is this: Would not the baby prefer to kick 
his legs about in freedom, and stretch his arms and limbs, 
and would not he become all the stronger for the exercise? 

Besides this, there is such a thing as placing too great 
confidence in baby’s complete safety when strapped up in his 
cushion. 

A party of peasants once had to carry their child some 
distance before they came to the church in which it was to be 
christened. It was winter, and the snow lay thick on the 
ground. After the christening ceremony, the parents, the 
sponsors, and the friends took something to eat at a near-by 
inn, to prepare themselves for the return journey. 

They then set out in great good humor, and reached 
home safely with the pillow, but there was no baby in it. 
Perhaps they had by mistake held the pillow upside down; 
perhaps the blue bows had become loose; at any rate the 
baby had slipped out, and was found lying on the snow, half¬ 
way between the church and the village. Fortunately, he 
was a sturdy young peasant-child, and escaped with a cold in 
his head, which the fond parents tried to cure on reaching 
home by popping him, pillow and all, into the oven, that was 
still warm from the baking of the christening-cake! 

After the baby is released from his pillow-bondage he 
passes a year or two in much the same way as children of his 
tender age do in other countries, entering gradually into the 


102 


GERMANY 


wonderland of fable and poetry. The very word Germany 
su gg es t s ruined castles, fairies, dwarfs, giants, witches and 
good and bad spirits. Along the River Rhine, as in fact all 
through Germany, we constantly find ourselves near some 

old massive stone ruin. It seems ever ready to tell stories 

% . 

of long ago—“Of brave Knights who defended its walls, of 
beautiful princesses saved from harm, of sturdy boys and 
sweet-faced girls who once played in the gardens.” For the 
Germans are an ancient and brave people, who have often 
had to fight terrible foes. 



As to fairies, it seems as though the dark forest, sunny 
valleys, and beautiful rivers were the natural homes of sprites 
and elves, the water spirits and wizards. The little German 
child absorbs, as part of the very air he breathes, many, many 
of the legends of fearful giants and enchanted castles, of 
which his country is the home. 

He does not trouble himself to doubt the existence of 






























GERMANY 


103 


the fairies and spirits of which he hears, but believes in them 
all—Pelzmartel, Santa Claus, Frau Holle. He loves some 
of the inmates of this strange realm and fears others. But 
he has more real dread of the chimney-sweep, who, his 
nurse tells him, will run away with him if he is not a good 
boy, than of any of the unseen inhabitants of fairyland. It 
is our cousins in Germany whom we must thank for most of 
the wonderful fairy stories that we love so well. 

The little German girl is early taught to help her 
mother about the house and to take her share cheerfully and 
gladly of the work that must be done. 

But above everything she is taught to love the Christ- 
child. 

In many parts of Germany it is customary, on the 
morning of the day before Christmas, to let a figure, repre¬ 
senting the Christ-child, wave past the window of the room 
where the little ones sleep. Only half-awake, in the gra}' 
of the morning, they see this little child-figure flit dimly past, 
and go to sleep again in the happy knowledge that the Christ- 
child has not forgotten them, and that they will have abun¬ 
dance of presents round His tree in the evening. In Ger¬ 
many the presents are always distributed on Christmas-eve 
instead of on Christmas morning, as is the custom with 
some of us. 

In this manner pass the few years between the fairyland 
of fable-lore and the real life of home discipline. The rod 
has still a fixed place in all German households. It peers 
from behind the looking-glass all the year round, and is al¬ 
ways adorned at Christmas with a bright new ribbon, which 
is bound round it with much ceremony. 

When the little ones are four years old, or even younger, 
many of them go for some hours in the day to the kindergar- 


104 


GERMANY 


ten. A good man, named Frobel, who had the welfare of 
children at heart, started these kindergarten (children’s gar¬ 
dens) years ago and now they have spread over much of 
the world. 

The rooms in which they are held are provided with 
low benches, and the walls are decorated with bright pictures. 
By means of these pictures, 
small blocks of wood, small 
sticks, colored straws, balls, 
rings, threads, stones, shells, 
and clay, the children receive 
their first impressions of 
beauty, of fitness, and of use. 



IN A KINDERGARTEN. 


In what they call their play-school, they build, they plait, 
they draw, they paint, cut out, lay on, mould, and model; 
and all that they do, simple as it is, must be done with 
care, method and order. Short tales are told, and the 
shortest words are used in the telling, for if a big word 
creeps into the narrative the children cannot remember it. 








































































































































































































































































GERMANY 


i oj 


But they are not suffered to sit too long-. Constant 
chang-e is the order of the day. From time to time the mis¬ 
tress makes a sign, and all leave their play-work and assem¬ 
ble round her. “This is the way we clap our hands when 
we march round the school,” says she, suiting- the action to 
the word, and the little ones form themselves into a kind of 
procession, and follow her movements, clapping- and shout¬ 
ing- to their hearts' content. 

Sing-ing-, of course, is not forgotten. The simplest 
words are put to the simplest melodies, and are sung with a 
will. They love singing from their earliest days, and it 
seems as though every boy and girl in the whole country 
takes to it as naturally as a duck takes to the water. They 
sing with a love of what they are singing as though the tune 
were a part of their very selves. As you know, some of the 
finest musicians have been Germans and their gifts to the 
world in this way have been many. 

The boys carry their books, and sometimes their 
dinner, in a small knapsack which is strapped on their 
s h o u Id ers, 
like a soldier’s 
knapsack. 

On the Conti¬ 
nent you will 
often see chil¬ 
dren carrying 
these knap¬ 
sacks and 
looking as if 
they were en¬ 
joying a walk¬ 
ing-tour, in- 



“PLEASE GIVE IT TO MEl” 














GERMANY 


fo6 


stead of only going- to school. But walking tours are often 
taken by boys with a master, in Germany or Switzerland. 
Once the tale of Goliath and David was related. The teacher 
described the giant with his panzerhemd (shirt of mail) and 
David in his shepherd’s dress. Then he asked questions. 
They were all answered till he said, “What had Goliath on?” 
Then no one spoke. Panzerhemd was too long a word. 

At last one urchin stretched out a 
chubby little fist to intimate that 
he knew. “Well, Mase,” said the 
teacher, “what had Goliath on?” 
“Please, sir, a hemdlem /” an¬ 
swered the voice. A hemdlem is a 
little baby shirt. 

The school day begins early 
in Germany, for the elder boys 
have all to be at their places in 
school by seven o’clock from Eas¬ 



“I’VE FORGOTTEN.” 


ter to October, and by eight in the winter. The little ones 
and the girls are expected by eight all the year around. So 
you see that our little German cousins have at least an hour 
more of school each day than we have. 

The girls are punished by bad notes. If a girl has 
three bad notes she must report herself to the Director, or 
Rector, as he is called, and this is considered a great disgrace. 

Singing and gymnastics belong to the school duties. 
Gymnastics, especially, is always attended to, and takes the 
place in Germany that the national games do in our country. 

The principal out-door amusements, if we except the 
numberless games common to all countries (as “I spy,” 
“Puss in the Corner,” and the like), are skating and sleigh¬ 
ing in winter, and soldiering in summer. 





























INDIAN WOMAN OF BOLIVIA AND HER BABY 

The little child of Bolivia rides on his mother’s back all day long in a small sack, which is fastened around 

her shoulders. 



GOING TO CHURCH ON SKEES 

The favorite method of travel in Canada and in Norway and Sweden. Racing and jumping on these “shoe 

sleds” is very popular with the children. 







GERMANY 


107 



Sleighing is a great amusement, and lasts many weeks 
in Germany, when winter is a long and cold season, and is 
sure to bring heavy falls of snow and sharp frost. The 
frost may last as long as it likes, and frequently does last for 
a couple of months. A fine chance this for skating; fine for 
sleighing! For this latter amusement Nature has to lend 
a willing hand, too. More or less gentle slopes and hills 
not too far out of town, and yet so far that the police will 
not stop the sport, are the favors required of her. 


Old Winter and 
Nature being obliging, 
the children make the 
best use of all their hol¬ 
iday hours; and, pulling 
their fur or worsted caps 
over their ears, and 
thrusting their hands 
into their moleskin 
gloves, hurry away to 
the tops of the hills with 
their sleds and come 
sliding down the frozen 
slope in high glee. The 


steeper the hill and the “ I,M SORRY « mamma.- 

more numerous the sleighers, the wilder and more danger¬ 
ous the sport, and the more loved by the boys, who almost 
prefer it to the summer’s amusement of soldiering. 

In a military land like Germany, the gay uniforms, 
the music, the flags, the parades are the first things that 
attract a child’s eye, and his earliest wish is for a helmet, a 
wooden sword, and a drum. Sometimes papa presents his 
young son with a whole suit of uniform for his birthday; 



GERMANY 


108 

and it is very funny to see a hero of six march with dignity 
up and down before his father’s house, or touch his cap with 
martial salute. 

As the boy grows older the military spirit continues. 
In most parts of Germany every saint’s day is a school 
holiday. Besides this, there are half-holidays for heat. If 
the day is very warm the schoolboy is given a holiday in 
the afternoon. These precious afternoons are occupied in 
making excursions to some fine old ruin, a cloister or a fort. 
They wear many a stray scrap of armor, helmets of all de¬ 
scriptions, a mail shirt or two and spurs, and all have wooden 
swords, an old gun that has long since ceased firing, or a 
blunt sabre, brought from some distant land and kept at 



home as a relic. On one of the heights that surround the 
town, perhaps in the middle of a wood, stands a fort of rude 
construction, that has been made by boys in remote years, 
and has been used by generations of boys since. Here the 
flag is hoisted; the boys divide into two parties—one party 
“ mans” the fort and defends the flag, the other tries to cross 
the moat and storm the position, as we have shown in our 
illustration on another page. 

Of course there is plenty of noise; and the blast of the 
never-failing horn, and the shouts of the boys, often guide 
father and mother, who are taking their afternoon walk, to 



















GERMANY 


109 



the spot. The mothers look on with something- like terror, 
fearful of sprained ankles, wounds and bruises; but the 
father enjoys the sight. He remembers how he played at 
the same fort when he was a boy, and enters thoroughly into 
the spirit of the game. 

After autumn come, with rapid strides, winter and the 
Christmas 
holidays. 

Short they are, 
only ten days 
in length, but 


perhaps all the 
more enj oy- 
able because of 
this. The 
boys and girls 
have fair- 
money given 
them (for 
there is al¬ 
ways a fair 
held before 
Christmas ) , 
with which 
they can make 
their little pur- 

chases and dreaming of the fairies* gifts. 

contributions to the Christmas tree. Then the attics have to 
give up their treasures; and the tiny castle, with its moat, 
drawbridge, and regiments of soldiers drawn up in martial 
array in the castle yard; the villa with its pleasure-grounds, 
its lakes, its playing fountains; the doll-houses, dolls, kitch- 


















no 


GERMANY 


ens, pantries, shops, theatres, etc., all come under review, 
are painted afresh, repaired, newly papered, newly arranged; 
the dolls are sent to the doll-doctor (in some towns there is 
a so-called doll-doctor, whose whole time is employed in re¬ 
pairing the tender persons of these fragile creatures), and 
some addition is made as a surprise to each different toy. 

The children write their Wunsch-zettel”—a list of the 
new presents that they would like to get—and mamma and 
papa choose from the rather long list what they think 
suitable. The tree is bought and hidden, to be secretly deco¬ 
rated, and on Christmas Eve papa lights it up with great cere¬ 
mony, after mamma has arranged the presents and a great 
plateful of cakes for each member of the household. Then 
the doors are opened, and the impatient children are admitted. 

The next week they are very busy. Selling, buying, 
cooking (all on a small scale), dolls’ christenings, dolls’ 
parties, theatrical performances, and many other celebrations 
follow each other in rapid succession, till New Year’s Day 
is passed and the holidays are over. 

Then it is that all the larger toys vanish to their attics, 
and are not to be brought down again till another twelve- 
month has flitted past with its school-life and its home 
pleasures; till the Christ-child moves once more past the 
window, and the frosted fir-tree stands in festal array await¬ 
ing its guests. 


Austria and Hungary. 


USTRIA-HUNGARY is a country 
which is made up of people of many 
tribes and nations, some of them 
Austrians, but we should have to 
give a dozen or more names to tell 
who they all are. 

And they are not at all alike in 
their modes of life, their habits or 
their languages, and the ways of 
the children differ as much as those 
of their fathers and mothers. So 
we can pick out only what will be most interesting to Amer¬ 
ican boys and girls, though there is so much that is interest¬ 
ing that we scarcely know where to begin. 

Not where to begin ! The little street-boy, who begs 
for a zehnerl in the “ring” at Vienna helps us out of this 
difficulty. When he has got his zehnerl he dances away, 
shrieking at the top of his voice 

“There is but one Empire-town, 

Is but one Vienna.” 



and all Austrians sing the same song, and firmly believe 
that there is no town or place in the wide world that will 
bear comparison with their merry, beautiful, music and art- 
loving capital. 




AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


I I 2 


Following the hint that the street-boy has given us, we 
might take you to the lovely Park or Prater of Vienna, with 
its three noble avenues. 

You would like the Volks avenue best, for there all the 
wonders of the world may be seen at different seasons of the 
year. Dwarfs and giants, Punch and Judy shows, white 
mice and monkeys, dancing dogs and happy families, tight¬ 
rope dancers and wandering 
menageries, all are here, the 
noise and the fun being great; 
bands are playing, singers are 
singing, barrel organs are dron¬ 
ing, Italians are crying: “Sal- 
amucci, Salami, Sal am ini 
duci!” to induce people to buy 
their Salami and Swiss cheese, 
and cafes in which everything 
besides coffee may be bought, 
are everywhere about. 

But, apart from their merry 
and laughter-loving disposi¬ 
tion, the Austrian children are 
not unlike their cousins in Ger¬ 
many, for they have similar 
home customs and amusements 
and pretty toys. They have 
schools like those of the Ger¬ 
mans, too. Thus there is the Kindergarten, the teachers of 
which take their pupils in the pleasant summer afternoons 
away into the woods with dolls and battledores, and baskets 
for the wild strawberries that they are sure to find on the 
mossy banks. 


j'viV 
gH-1 

// 



WADING. 

















































AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


113 


So, for the reason that these have been already de¬ 
scribed in our story about the German children, we cannot 
stop in the fair city of Vienna, but must make excursions, 
now to the Tyrol, then to Roumania, Slavonia, Croatia, and 
other lands of the Austrian empire, and by telling- something 



PLAYING IN HARVEST TIME 


about the child-life in these countries, help you to form an 
idea of the whole. 














114 


.AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


And first to the Tyrol. 

“On the bridge of the Inn I would stand and see 
The rafts -with their merry company; 

Tyrolean voices sing from afar, 

Huldi-eh!” 


A number of schoolboys out for a day’s excursion are 
floating down the River Inn on a raft. This is fine fun, but 
not without danger, especially to such an unruly company. 
But the tall, brawny Tyrolese raftsmen are equal to their 
task, and guide the raft carefully with their long poles, taking 
the bends and falls of the river in masterly style. 

At length the boys reach their destination, and are all 
landed safely, minus a cap or two, which the Inn with its 
light blue waters tosses about in triumph and will not give 
up again. “Huldi-eh, Oh!” sing the boys as they climb the 
hill-side, decking their remaining caps with green, and look¬ 
ing for bilberries on the way, and “ Huldi-eh, Oh, Huldi-eh!'* 
answers the raftsman’s son, as he looks after them, a little 
wistfully, maybe, and helps his father to set the raft afloat 


again. 

The raftsman’s son has plenty of hard work and not too 
much pleasure, but he grows up hardy and strong, and has 
a better lot than many boys and girls of his country. 

A number of Tyrolese children, girls especially, are 
occupied in the summer months in picking bilberries or cran¬ 
berries, or collecting ant eggs. 

In the lower valley of the Inn, and, above all, near Inns 
brack, the whimberry or bilberry grows in large quantities. 
The berry gatherers begin their work early in the mornings 
of August and September, and as the berries that grow 
highest on the rocks are the best for making the bilberry 
brandy and fetch the best price, there is a good deal of climb 
ing to be done before the berry picking begins. 


AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


The ^ildren have a kind of comb to assist them in gather¬ 
ing- the fruit. This is a long cup with a handle, and above the 
cup a comb. When this instrument is pulled gently through 
the plants the comb draws off the berries, which fall into the 
cup, and when the cup is full it is emptied into a basket. 

Many of these baskets are seen on market days floating 
down the river on the rafts, the little gatherer beside it on 
her way to Innsbruck to sell her berries. 

The ant egg collectors, ant-witches, as they are called, 
because they put on the most shabby and ragged clothes 
they possess when at work, are seen mainly in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Seefeld. There the woods and forests are thick with 
underwood, and the soil very favorable to ant life. The 
brown-red forest ant is the one the girls look for, as ants of 
this species live together in great numbers and have larger 
eggs than other kinds. 

The way the eggs are collected is singular. 

First of all the girls seek a sunny place where a brook 
or some little stream flows. At the edge of the stream they 
make a kind of island by scooping out a small ditch round 
about two feet of soil, and leading the water into it let it 
flow off below into its natural bed. In the little island thus 
formed they scoop a few holes which are covered over with 
green leaves and twigs to keep them shady. After these 
arrangements the girls go into the woods in all directions 
and look for ant-hills. They have a kind of small spade or 
trowel with them and a bag; now and then also a pair of 
coarse gloves to protect their hands from stings. 

When an ant-hill is found they remove the soil gently 
with their spade till the white eggs are laid bare. If the 
eggs be much scattered they do not waste time, but shovel 
the whole ant-hill into their bag and proceed on their search 


AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


116 

for more. After they have filled the bag they return to their 
island, and empty the contents of the bag—ants, eggs, and 
soil—on it, taking care to leave the shaded holes free. 
Then they go a little aside and eat their meal, picnic fashion, 
by the brook's side, perhaps, too, take a nap; for they know 
that the ants will do the rest of their work for them. And 
so it is. The little creatures set to work without delay to re¬ 
move all their eggs into the shady holes provided for them. 
At the approach of evening the girls can collect the eggs 
without difficulty, and turning the water off so that the poor 
deluded ants can leave their island at their leisure, they 
march off with their booty. These eggs sell well for the food 
of birds. 

Ways of making themselves useful besides these are 
many more in which the Tyrolean children are engaged 
—carving in wood, for instance, embroidering and making 
lace, helping their parents, too, in one or other of the man} 
trades peculiar to Tyrolese villages, such as the making of 
gloves, training of canaries, washing and bleaching for towns 
and, as in Teferregen, weaving carpets from cow-hair. 

A favorite amusement is to play the zither or the dulci¬ 
mer. Often the girl takes her zither, a stringed instrument 
well adapted to the Tyrolese national songs, and the 
boy his dulcimer, and very sweet does a duet on both sound 
in the open air. Boys are also fond of making all kinds of 
little machines, of forming or constructing mimic water-mills 
among the mountains, and are very clever with tools, and in 
their ability to make things both useful and decorative for the 
house, they are natural-born carpenters. 

But now I must mention one sad race of children—those 
belonging to the wandering gypsy tribes who have their homes 
in dirty villages in some parts of the country. In these the 


ii 7 


AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 



A PEASANT GIRL. 

























































































































































































ii8 AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 

children and their parents pass the winter, but at the first ap¬ 
proach of spring they begin their wanderings, which they often 
extend to long distances. 

A shabby, two-wheeled cart drawn by the father of the 
family, or if he can afford it by a lean donkey, is covered 
with a rude awning, and contains brushes, brooms, baskets, 
pitchers, pans, or whatever the gypsy has taken up as his trade.* 
In front a number of bird-cages hang, some of which are sure 
to hold trained birds which can sing a variety of songs and 
perform one or two clever tricks. By the side of the cart runs 
a dirty, evil-looking dog, whose qualities, however (for it is 
sure to be true as steel), are better than its looks. 

The father, mother, and half-dozen children are dirty and 
ragged, but have in their clothing the scraps of bright color 
of which all gypsies are fond. Their coming is so certain every 
year that in towns distinct places are set apart for them and 
if in the villages their accustomed barn or shed is not to be 
had, they think it no trial to camp out in the open air. Their 
lives are the lives of all the gypsies in the world; the father 
mends pans or baskets, the mother sits near her cart and tends 
the baby, occasionally earning a penny by telling passers-by 
their fortunes, and the children wander about in all directions 
to beg or to steal. 

But we must now hurry away and visit the other peoples 
of the empire. Wherever we find that the houses are bright- 
looking and clean, the children tidy and well taught, and a 
general air of industry and prosperity prevails, we may be 
sure it is a German village, and we may hope that the mother 
in Transylvania may long sing her pretty cradle-song to her 
children in prosperity and peace. 

Two of these cradle-songs are here given, translated 
into English: 


AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


119 


In Winter. 

“ The clouds are flying, 

The winds are sighing, 

The flakes are falling 
Around so wild. 

Sleep on, my precious one. 
Sleep, my child! ” 


In Summer. 

Sleep, Hansi, Sleep! 

In the yard the birds are 


singing, 

On the hearth the cat is 


purring! 

Thou’rt more than thou¬ 


sands worth of gold 
To me, my Hansi. Sleep! ” 


Though the little child has such tender songs addressed 
to him, he is brought up to be hardy and strong, and taught 
to be very industrious. So industrious indeed, that it has 
become a saying that if a Saxon—as the Germans of the 
kingdom are called—has no other work to do he pulls down 
his house and builds it again. Not that his home needs pull¬ 
ing down; it is generally pretty, with a garden, which girls 
keep full of bright flowers, and a pigeon-house kept by 
the boys, and a balcony where the father and mother find 
time in the evening to sit and chat with their friends. 

Inside the house is roomy and neat. A great, green 
stove with benches round it and poles above it, on which 
clothes are hung to air, occupies a good part of it; boards 
are ranged below the ceiling for plates and dishes, and be¬ 
low them hooks, in regular rows, with jugs hanging from 
them that are only used in times of feast. A Black Forest 
clock and a few books, perhaps a picture or two, may be 
seen, and in side rooms we have a glimpse of clean beds 
piled up with pillows and coverlets as in Germany. In 
many parts of Hungary, as is also the case in Holland, no 
doubt to save room, the bedsteads are made with drawers in 
them. These are always pulled out at night, and serve the 
children for beds. 

The Roumanian neighbors are a simple mountain people. 
When a child is born the father says, '‘Happiness is fallen 
on my house,” and certain it is that he has very little trouble 


120 


AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


with his child, who grows up as hardy, as indolent, and with 
as few wants as himself. A few days after the child’s birth 
food and money are placed on a table for the three 
fairies who are supposed to determine its fate. The nurse 
pockets the money and eats the food—but this very likely 
comes to the same thing. When the child is three years old 
its hair is cut, with great care and with a pair of new scissors, 
a cake is broken in two over his head, and some present is 

given which will 
be useful to him 
when he gets 
older. His food 
is maize made up 
into a paste, a 
cheese made of the 
milk of sheep, veg¬ 
etables and fruit. 
He is taught to 
pray: “Lord, give 
not to man as 
much as he could 
do with;” to stand 
with bent and bare 
head to salute the 
rising sun, which is considered holy, and he has to learn 
many rules with regard to what is thought clean or unclean. 
Besides the sun, some animals, and even wheaten bread, 
are thought sacred. 

The village schools are good and plentiful. The children 
of Slavonia are very intelligent, and are clever at learning 
languages. They always know one or two besides their own, 
and are skilled in carving, painting and modeling, and in the 

































































































































AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


121 


making' of pretty little baskets. They are fond of singing, 
but many of the old national songs are lost because their 
priests (they are Catholics) do not approve of their singing 
them. They are fond of wise proverbs, legends, and fairy 
tales, which, in the winter evenings, when the spinning-wheel 
is set in motion, and the father sits at his loom and weaves, 
the mother or grandmother often tells them. 

And now, not having space to write about the Bohe- 
mians, the 
Bulgarians, 
or the many 
Jews,wewill 
close with 
one or two 
scenes from 
the life of a 
Croatian 
child, and a 
description 
of Christ¬ 
um a s in 
Croatia. 

In that 

country very old fashioned ideas of race prevail. All the 
members and relatives of a family form one company. One 
of the company is chosen as head, who takes charge of the 
property of all, settles disputes and divides the work to be 
done. The children are taught to be respectful to their 
parents, very respectful to their godfathers and godmothers, 
and to live on the best footing with the children of the 
Greeks, Jews and others who may be their neighbors. They 
also have good schools and learn well. 





vbkiJ f/‘3Twr "C 

3 ,, 


/b 

, S' # 4 > 

(Drc 


LOST IN THE WOODS. 




























































122 


AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


Among many pretty and singular customs peculiar to 
different seasons of the year, those relating to Christmas are 
perhaps the most interesting. For the Christmas feast, the 
finest wheat flour, the sweetest honey, the richest fruit and 
the best wine are stored up. The grandmother dips the three 
wax lights that must stand on the Christmas table. The 
boys are sent to the woods to find the immense log of wood, 
which, after having been sprinkled with wine, is put in the 
stove on Christmas Eve. Two great loaves are baked, which 
are to signify the Old and New Testament. When the 
church-bell rings on Christmas Eve, the whole family assem¬ 
bles in the dwelling-room; the first of the tapers is lighted, 
and a hymn is sung. The table is spread with eatables, 
and near the two Christmas loaves, which are placed on it, is 
a small cup or vessel filled with wheat, barley and oats. 

Before the feast begins the father goes to the table, takes 
the burning taper in his hand, and says, “Christ is born.” The 
children and all others repeat, “Is born, really born.” Then 
the taper is placed in turn in the hand of each child, who has 
to stand on the bench by the stove and say three times,” 
“Praised be the Lord! Christ is born!” whereupon the other 
members of the family answer, “Praise the name of the 
Lord forever, and may He grant thee life and health!” 

On Christmas Day the second taper is lighted, the 
father says a short prayer, and then, blowing out the taper, 
pushes it down among the grains contained in the little ves¬ 
sel we have already mentioned. Then he examines it. That 
kind of grain which sticks to the candle, wheat, barley or 
oats, will, he believes, yield the best crop in the coming year. 

The last of the three tapers is always burned on New 
Year’s Day, which closes the Christmas festivities. 

These Christmas customs you have noticed, no doubt, 


AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY 


123 



to be important features in the child-life of nearly every 
country we have written about. Just as American children 
rejoice in the season when Christ as a child came into the 
world, so all the little people, the Hungarians, Germans, 
Croatians and many others love to celebrate Christmas. 
So when you, my young readers, read this book, do not for¬ 
get the poor little Croat or Tyrolese in his hut, or the Bohe¬ 
mians in their tents, who 
according to their quaint 
and pretty customs, are 
celebrating the birth of 
our Saviour, as well as 
yourselves; and be sure 
you wish them and all 
your kind friends at 
home, who are thus 
united in one great band 
of Christians, a '‘Merry 
Christmas and a Happy 
New Year!” 

At a future day some A little shepherd with his flute. 

of you who read these 

pages will possibly go to Hungary or Bohemia, and see for 
yourselves the many wonders and curiosities of those coun¬ 
tries, and make acquaintance with the little Croats and 
Magyars; and perhaps they will tell you a great deal more 
of their manners and customs, and of their games and school¬ 
ing than we, in these few pages, have been able to do. 
























































Indians of North and South America. 


A S you doubtless know, 
there were once no 
white people in the 
western world and our In¬ 
dian cousins were free to 
wander where they chose. 
When the white men came 
with their greater skill and 
knowledge, the Indians 
were soon driven west until 
but few remain, and fewer 
still yet live in the manner 
of their grandfathers. But because they were once a great 
and powerful people we shall describe the manners and cus¬ 
toms of our little red cousins who are growing up in the 
same way that little Indian boys and girls have grown up in 
this country for centuries and centuries and centuries; the 
race which has now so nearly died out is one of the very oldest 
in the whole world. 

The North American Indian baby is put in a cradle 
most beautifully made by its mother, and it takes a great 
deal of time and trouble to weave the grass and other ma¬ 
terials. to put on the beads and make it look pretty for the 

124 














INDIAN'S OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 125 

"papoose.” All the Indian tribes do not make their cradles 
in precisely the same way; but the example of one may be 
accepted as the type of all, from Russian America to Mexico 
in the south. 

If you were to see it, especially when the child is sus¬ 
pended in it, I think it would hardly appear to be very cosy. 
If you can imagine a long, oval plate with an immense “roley- 
poley” pudding on it, and one end of the roley-poley with a 
head sticking out, you have the Indian baby in its cradle, 
wrapped up. 

Does this seem pleasant, think you? We do not The 
Indian baby, though, is not unhappy. He is laid upon a 
board and fastened to it on his back. Of course the board is 
not a bare, hard piece of wood. No. The Indian mother is 
just as fond of her little one as your kind mamma is of you 
The board is covered with nice, soft skins, and thongs are 
fastened to it to wrap the child carefully. In our nursery 
rhymes we read of a certain “Baby Bunting whose father 
went a-hunting to fetch a rabbit-skin’’ in which to wrap his 
baby. This is what the Indian does. 

He finds deer-skins or matting or soft bark of trees when 
he cannot get skins, and the mother stuffs the little cradle with 
soft grass or moss or woolen rags—with anything nice and soft 

_and then the little baby is fastened up lightly with thongs, 

and straps in his roley-poley-looking cradle on the board. 

Perhaps you would not think that the Indian baby is 
very comfortable, but he is, for we have heard that he will 
cry to go back to his cradle, though he is bound up so tightly, 
and can only move his poor little head. Sometimes the 
cradles are hung up on the boughs of the trees while the 
mothers are away, and the appearance of the little creatures 


126 


INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 


must be curious as they dangle from the branches, fast asleep. 
Thus, you see, the Indian mother, who generally has 
plenty of work to do, is not troubled to carry her baby on one 
arm while she cooks the dinner, or obliged to leave it on the 
cold floor while she does the washing. The Indian baby 
is allowed to roll about on the grass, if it is good, sometimes; 
but if it cries much it is wrapped up again, and it soon learns 
to be quiet. It is fed when most convenient, and put to rest 
in a corner against the wall, as we would rest our walking- 

stick, when the mother 
is busy in the tent, or 
hung up in the wig¬ 
wam out of the reach 
of the dogs, if it wants 
to sleep. 

When the baby 
grows up, and has es¬ 
caped or conquered 
what ills its little flesh 
is heir to, it becomes 
a strong and hearty 
little Indian boy or girl, 
as the case may be. 
But in most cases it is 
attacked by measles, or some such childish illness as you 
have had, and then the poor mother is very anxious. She 
sends for the doctor, of course, you say! 

Yes, for the doctor such as Indians have. But he is not 
really a doctor like our kind attendants. He or she is a kind 
of magician, for the untutored tribes in many parts of the 
world who have grown up from strange children into equally 
strange men and women, think illness is caused by an evil 





■s, « • 


AN INDIAN FAMILY. 


INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 127 

spirit. There are only two remedies for strange babies— 
“kill or cure!” 

The poor mothers know no better. They are extremely 
fond of their children, and would do anything to keep their 
little dusky or copper-colored babies; but the enchanter is 
the only person who they think can help them. They do 
not know God as we do, and though they worship sometimes 
the Great Spirit, they have no idea that sickness is His 
punishment or His mercy. They think it is an evil spirit, 
so they ask the man or woman magician to come with 
charms and incantations to drive it out. 

Then the “medicine man” comes, and unless nature inter¬ 
feres the poor strange baby has no chance. The doctor begins 
to cry and burn wood and grass before the child, shaking a 
rattle, and nearly driving the poor baby mad. If after this 
treatment the child survive, it will presumably endure any¬ 
thing. But it more frequently dies, and the parents are quite 
satisfied that they have done all they could, and the little 
one has gone to the “happy hunting-grounds” of the tribe. 

Whether the baby survive or not, the “doctor” is praised 
and rewarded for his courage in attacking and vanquishing 
the evil demon in one case, or for his courage in approaching 
him at all, even if he has not vanquished him, in the other. 
Under such circumstances it is not surprising that Indian 
boys and girls grow up strong and well fit for almost any 
hardships, for only the very hardy ones can possibly survive, 
as consumption is a frequent malady, and small-pox is ter¬ 
ribly destructive. 

Suppose, however, that the Indian child survive its 
childish troubles; we will tell you now something concerning 
his amusements and his sister’s occupations. You see we 
put the amusement for the boy and the occupation for the 


128 


INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 


girl with good reason, for the lad plays and the girl works. 

Amongst the Indians the women work, and the men 
fight, fish, hunt, shoot, get tipsy, but certainly do not work. 

The Indian boy is quite a spoiled child. He does just 
as he pleases. From the time he is able to leave his mother’s 
apron-string, we may say—though Indian ladies do not dress 

like our nurses—the young Indian 
literally runs wild. He does as he 
likes, comes and goes as he pleases; 
unfurnished with any clothes what¬ 
ever, his mother has no anxiety 
concerning his falling down and cut¬ 
ting holes in his trousers; there is no 
sighing over caps tossed in the 
gutter, no lamentations concerning 
nails which have torn jacket-sleeves, 
or the darning of socks. No, the 
an indian”medicine man. Indian lad is as free as a bird and 

as saucy as a sparrow. 

Indeed “saucy” is scarcely the term. He is impudent, 
and even disrespectful to his elders, including his parents. 
He “bullies” his sisters, and has no idea of being put down 
by any one. Instead of being punished he is applauded; no 
one has any authority over him; he “goes his own gait,” 
and naturally grows up a proud and conceited young warrior. 
Human nature is much the same all the world over—white 
boys, black boys, copper-colored boys, or red boys, are all 
the same. Education and civilization make the only differ¬ 
ence. So our spoiled American child will become wilful 
and disobedient as well as the little Indian if he be not 
checked in time. 

Then the wild youth swims in the lakes, runs races, 























INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 





Pifl 


HR 

u, '■ ' 


iplll 




ill® it 






'a/v/Ar* 


tetri t ***»»;:«*’.;i. 


Pm 

t /fi m 

I. ' 

wfr 

{ v h m 

\ ■ ivj 

K* £ 

V if V, v IK 

rlf, •> 

I r- 

\g a -. S'-:-: W 

■W \\ 


MEXICAN INDIANS IN THEIR FINEST CLOTHES. 

[The little boy is seen holding a water jar such as their tribe has used for a thousand years. 











































































































































































































130 


INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 


plays games, goes about with the dogs, fishes and cooks his 
fish—above all things, he eats. He is always eating except 
when he is asleep, and then, probably, he may have some¬ 
thing in his mouth. He has long weapons—bows and 
arrows—a little spear perhaps, or a blow-pipe in some coun¬ 
tries. Toys, he has none, except, perhaps, a ball or a kite. His 
instincts are destructive; killing birds or snaring them, rob¬ 
bing their nests, catching ground-game, and generally amu¬ 
sing himself, until he becomes a man and a “brave.” Yet with 

all this want of an education, as we 
would term it, the Indian lad picks 
up much experience of a kind use¬ 
ful to him. He truly has “books 
in the running brooks” and “ser¬ 
mons in stones”—only they are 
not books or sermons to him. He 
can read a trail or guide himself 
by the stars. He knows by the 
turn of a leaf in what direction an 
animal has gone, and can tell you 
also what it was. He is gay and 
cheerful, and as dirty as you can 
imagine, yet he is frequently bath¬ 
ing and swimming. The dirt remains; oil and grease have 
become part and parcel of his skin. He is, indeed, a very 
dirty boy. 

The little Indian girl is differently brought up. As soon 
as she can run she is furnished with a dress, and assists her 
mother in her fetching and carrying wood and water. When 
girls get older they still continue to work, and have little time 
for playing, like their brothers. They weave and sew 
skins of the animals the men kill; they procure roots and 











INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 131 

berries, and indeed are never idle, for no created being- works 
harder than an Indian woman, and the daug-hter is always 
helping her mother. 

Some day the girl will grow up strong, and a warrior 
from the tribe, or from some other, will come and purchase 



A SEMINOLE THEATRICAL TROUPE. 


her from her parents, and she will go away from her mother’s 
tent to the warrior’s wigwam, learn to make a cradle, and 
have all the trouble and teaching with her little baby that 
her mother has had with her. 





132 INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 

The boy grows up, goes on fishing, hunting and 
shooting. 

There is another kind of Indian who lives in South 
America. A curious, stolid, uninquisitive little thing is the 
Amazon Indian child. When he comes into the world, 
clothed in a brown skin, the little Amazon lies auietly in his 



COURTSHIP AMONG THE INDIANS. 


cradle, scarcely taking any notice of anything, and receiving 
very little attention from his mother. The happy children 
in the United States and Europe are looked after very care¬ 
fully ; even the poor people attend to their little ones; but the 
Amazon mother takes no trouble about her baby; it lies in 
its hammock-like cradle, and keeps quiet. 

When it grows up it runs about as it pleases, living on 






































INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 133 

fish and a kind of meal. It is a timid, gentle child, and does 
what it is told; it smiles and grins when pleased, plays 
about, looks, wonders, touches, tastes, but seems quite care¬ 
less about its surroundings; and our little Amazon would be 
no more tempted to make a hole in a toy drum (if he had 
one) to find where the noise came from than a little girl 
Amazon would try to see what was inside her doll. They 



A DANGEROUS PASS IN THE ANDES OF BOLIVIA. 


do not mind; they take life as they find it, and sometimes 
they find it hard. 

Then when they grow older they have few amusements 
except dancing. They do not play with toys much, if at all; 
we mean rough toys, for, of course, there are no nice shops 
for them to buy anything in. Sometimes a bow and arrow, 
or some such useful implement, will occupy a boy, but the 
little girls sit watching, watching all day, and doing very 






























x 34 INDIANS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 

little. When they grow up they beat cotton, or prepare the 
various kinds of roots for food. The Amazons are great 
pottery-makers, and they fish continually. 

The little Amazon may, perhaps, have some schooling 
and go into service. But when they remain in their village 
they work and take great care of all their old people, to 
whom they are obedient and reverent. They grow like a 
plant and die—having existed quietly just as their parents did. 

Children of Towcan tribes in Central America are some¬ 
times engaged to be married as soon as they appear in the 
world, and a piece of cloth of the same color is fastened on 
the arm of each baby. They also wear shells—one for every 
year they live—and when they can. count fifteen or twenty 
shells in the row they may be married. 




Switzerland. 


HAT American boy or girl would not 
like to change places for a month 
or two in the summer with a Swiss 
mountain child? How delightful it 
would be to live in a pretty Swiss 
cottage with its projecting eaves, its 
bark roof held firm by huge stones, its 
many-paned windows gay with flowers, 
its balconies, and its funny wooden 
outside staircase leading to the door. 
Then the snow-peaks at the back, the pine-forest below, and 
the mountain brook at the side, dashing and plashing over 
rock and stone in great haste to reach the valley. 

How charming we would find it to follow the pretty Al¬ 
pine cattle from one green hollow to another, to listen to 
their tinkling bells, play with the tame goats, pluck lovely 
wild flowers and catch bright butterflies, and then learn to 
call as the herd-boys do, and blow the Alpine horn, and sing 
the “Ranz des Vaches,” and in the evening to listen to the 
stories of adventure of the guide or chamois-hunter, as he 
rests for a quarter of an hour on his way down from danger¬ 
ous mountain passes, snowfields, and rivers of ice. Or, on 
some lovely evening, how delightful to listen to the tales of 
tyizards and witches, giants and dwarfs, dragons and huge 

135 

















136 


SWITZERLAND 


monsters, that lie coiled up at the bottom of the mountain 
lakes and are never seen, but are heard to hiss and groan 
and splutter when a storm is at hand or a misfortune is about 
to happen; stories told by the gray-haired grandfathei as 
he smokes his pipe below the cottage eaves or by the hearth 
stone, or as he sits, surrounded by attentive children, on the 
bench beneath the cottage windows. How many stories 
there are, too, of the famous heroes of Switzerland, who by 
their brave and daring deeds drove out again and again the 
tyrants who would have destroyed them or made them 
slaves. 

Though the people speak four different languages, have 
many religious beliefs, and though even the government is 
not alike in different parts, the Swiss States are bound to¬ 
gether by a bond which is stronger than language or creed 
can make. Our cousins among those beautiful mountains, 
like ourselves, prize liberty for all and brotherly love above 
everything. These make the most powerful of ties. How 
their hearts must beat with pride when they hear again and 
again of brave William Tell and Arnold von Winkelried and 
others who made the country famous for bravery and un¬ 
selfishness! 

Yes, we think it would be very pleasant to be there, but 
if an American boy or girl hears of the hot wind, that seems 
hot enough to set the pretty cottage on fire, or the avalanche 
falling and burying it in its snows, or the little brook swell 
iug with spring rains and melting snow and sweeping it 
away> he will be glad that his cradle stands on American 
ground. 

And—talking of cradles, I fancy that an American baby, 
if he could express his thoughts, would decidedly object 
to be placed in the small narrow box that bears this 


SWITZERLAND 


137 



name in Switzerland, and would fight against the bands 
or ribbons which are tightly wound round it and him. 

The Swiss baby has, of course, no such objection to 
it. Probably he knows that there is good reason for be¬ 
ing wedged in so tightly and bound so firmly, and submits 

without a mur¬ 
mur. 

The ori¬ 
gin of the cus¬ 
tom is this: 

In the 
spring of the 
year the peo¬ 
ple of the vih 
1 ages and 
hamlets shut 
up their cot¬ 
tages, and 
driving their 
cattle before 
them, go up the 
mountains to live 
in their chalets, or 
pretty mountain 
homes, during the 
summer months. 
uttlk swiss goat herd, They do not stay 


in one chalet all the time, but when the pasturage becomes 
poor they go to another, and still another, changing their place 
of living it may be eight or nine times in the course of the 
season. The scanty furniture of the different chalets remains 














SWITZERLAND 


13S 

in them from year to year, so they have only to bring with 
them what they need for cooking and for the making of bet¬ 
ter and cheese. These the father carries, the elder children 
helping him; the little children run by his side, and the 
mother lifts the cradle with the baby in it on her head, fas¬ 
tens the milk-pail and the family umbrella on her shoulders, 
and, taking her knitting in her hand, works away at a pair 
of coarse worsted gaiters for Seppi, or a neckerchief for 
Kathi, as she ascends the mountain. 

The first day that the cattle are driven on to their moun 
tain pasture-grounds is a great one for them and their owners, 
and especially for the children, who flock together from town 
and village to see a very strange sight. 

For the first thing that the cows do on finding themselve s 
freed from their winter stable-life, and allowed to roam at 
will on the green slopes before and around the chalet, is to 
dispute each other’s claim to be leader of the herd. 

They fight with each other for this, and the children 
look on and wonder if “ Griotta,” the red cow, or “Vio¬ 
letta,” the brown one, or “ Brunna,” the black one, or 
“ Masera,” the spotted one, will win. At last the fight is 
ended, and the victorious cow receives the badge of office, 
the great bell which the herd-boy hangs round her neck. 

With a proud sense of her dignity she shakes the bell 
from time to time, and from this day is literally queen of the 
herd, its leader and governor. She is so proud of this, that 
if, after having retained her office for a couple of years or so, 
another cow obtain the mastery in the annual fight and takes 
her place, it almost breaks her heart. She mopes like a sick 
child, becomes sad and melancholy, and refuses to eat. 

When the great dispute of “Who is to be queen?” is 
settled the children of the towns and villages return home 


SWITZERLAND 


139 


with their parents; the herd-boy sits on a mossy stone, and 
lets the breeze play with his hair, and sings or jodels in a 
merry voice the “ Ranz des Vaches.” 

“Colombetta’s herd-boys are up betimes, 

Ho, ho ! Cows, cows, come and be milked ! 

Come all, great and small, white, black, young and old. 

Come under the oak where I shall milk you, 

Under the ash where I shall set the milk to curd. 

Cows, dear cows, come and be milked ! ” 

As long as the cattle remain on the lowest pasture- 
ground of the hills the children in the valleys often beg their 
parents to take them for a day’s excursion to the mountains. 
But when the cattle are taken to higher pastures these visits 
cease, and nothing more occurs to disturb the inmates of the 
chalet in their great work of making butter and cheese. 

The making of cheese is a very important part of their 
work, and in some parts of Switzerland the riches of a man 
are counted by the number of cheeses he owns. 

A strange custom in the Valais is to make a cheese 
when a child is born, which is left uncut during his' lifetime, 
and is often cut into for the first time at his funeral feast. A 
rich man lays aside wine as well as cheese for his own fu¬ 
neral, and when that takes place a goblet of this “dead wine,” 
as it is called, is placed on the coffin, and the mourners take 
the goblet in their hand, touch the coffin with it, and drink 
the contents to a future meeting with their departed friend. 
“Au revoir! ” (till we meet again) they say. When a child 
"dies it is carried to the grave in an open coffin by other 
children, and its clothes are given to the poorest child in the 
village. 

Some of the girls in a Swiss family help their mother 
in the making of the cheeses, which they roll to a glacier, or 
ice mass (if one is near), and store up in cellars near the 



140 


SWITZERLAND 


cool ice. Others make a simple cushion lace to sell to 
tourists, or offer curds and whey for sale. The boys serve 
as sheep or goat herds, and lead their flocks to wild and dan¬ 
gerous parts of the mountains. 

You will often see a little fellow, with feather in cap, 
stick in hand, blouse floating on the breeze, and legs and feet 
bare, standing fearless and free on the very edge of a rock 
which projects over a deep cavity in the hill-sides, his troop 
of goats around him; and night after night these hardy 
mountain boys sleep beneath the open sky, their only bed a 
heap of dry leaves kept together by several large stones, or a 
cloak spread out on the short grass. They sleep sweetly, 
fearing nothing; and wake in the morning to see the cattle 
peeping up towards them from the hollow where they have 
been resting, and the eagle soaring away to its nesting place 
on the mountain summit. 

Many make toy animals for sale, the Swiss being great 
toy-makers, as you will find when you go to Switzerland, and 
see the pretty model chalets and other things that are 
made there. 

As a rule there are not many beggars, except in the 
tourists’ beaten tracks. In the canton Uri the children have 
a pretty way of begging, which generally results in their get¬ 
ting a coin or two. The little curly-headed, blue-eyed girls 
and boys run to you, look up at you with a smile, and then 
kissing their right hand slip it into yours, saying, in persua¬ 
sive tones, “Gemer oppis” (‘'Give me something”). 

School is held only during the winter months. The 
school-house is always the finest building in the village, the 
Swiss way of saying “as grand as a palace” being “as grand 
as a school house.” 

In the summer-time the boys learn the language of signs. 


SWITZERLAND 



(CM 


totmim 




THE ASCENT OF MONT BLANC 


































142 


SWITZERLAND 


This means that every household has its own sign or mark, 
which is kept in the family, descending from the father as a 
rule to the younger son. 

This sign or mark is cut or branded on the ears of the 
sheep and goats, on the trunks of trees that have been felled 
in the forests, on everything in short that belongs to a spec¬ 
ial house. As the sheep and goats of a great many families 
are entrusted to the care of one herd-boy, and all have to be 
taken to their owners at the end of the summer, the herd boy 
must be well taught in the meaning of the signs. 

This takes a well trained memory, and the good minis¬ 
ter, when he ascends the mountain at times during the sum¬ 
mer to look after his flocks, and catechise the children, often 
shakes his head, and complains that they are better ac¬ 
quainted with this sign language than with their catechism. 

As long as the families remain at the first or second 
scage on the mountain-side, they descend every Sunday to 
church, the mother carrying the baby, the father the next 
youngest child, The sermon is long, but the children, 
tired with their descent through the fresh mountain air, sleep 
peacefully through it, and only wake up when it is time to 
return home. In the Valais the people ride to church on 
donkeys or mules. The mother always sits in front, either 
carrying the baby or fastening its box-like cradle at the side. 
The father sits behind, holding on to his wife for fear he 
should slip off at the tail. The children run along by the 
side, the little ones grasping the donkey’s tail with both 
hands to help them to keep up with the others. 

It is only when the families have ascended to the higher 
chalets that the minister comes to them, and preaches in 
the open air. On these occasions he spends the night in 

one of the cottages, and often times his visit so as to be 

* 9 


SWITZERLAND 


i43 


present at one of the great wrestling-matches which take 
place on the mountains during the summer, and are looked 
forward to with great pleasure by parents, children, and 
the minister himself. 

A regular gymnastic training forms part of the boys’ 
and girls’ school duties, and all the Swiss children delight 
in contest of strength and agility. 

In these matches the men of two cantons or divisions of 
the country take part. 

First, as a rule, service is held, the minister standing at 
an improvised altar in the open air. Then the men, women, 
and children who have come from all the villages and small 
towns around form themselves into groups and eat the pro¬ 
visions they have brought with them, much of it black rye 
bread—for indeed they rarely see white bread in their 
homes—cheese, butter, cakes and buns disappear with 
great rapidity, and then the boys of the two cantons try their 
skill in some wrestling on their own account, but are soon 
pushed aside to make room for their elders, and are told to 
watch and learn. 

They do watch, and long for the time when they shall 
be men, and be entitled to take part in the match, which be¬ 
gins by the opponents, one of each canton, stepping forward 
and shaking hands in a friendly way, to show that the com¬ 
bat is peaceful and undertaken without any feeling of ill-will. 
When one of the wrestlers is thrown, another pair steps for¬ 
ward, and another, and another, till the young men of both 
cantons have all had an opportunity of displaying their 
muscle and skill. 

The strongest couple is reserved for the last, and he who in 
three courses has thrown his opponent twice has won the day. 
The prize is a sheep decorated with garlands and ribbons. 


144 


SWITZERLAND 


The cnildren play all kinds of games, but their favorite 
is called—and I know you will laugh—“Blind Cow.” It 
is very much like our “Blind Man’s Buff,” however. 

A great amusement for boys when alone with their 
fiocks on the mountain-side is carving. With a penknife 
and a piece of wood they begin to shape the image of a 
sheep, a goat, or a cow. At first their attempts are rude 
enough, but practice and a taste and skill inherited from 
their fathers soon make them perfect in their art. 

There are whole villages of toy makers. Every one in 
a family carves some part of the same toy, for they say to 
themselves: “It would be foolish to spend one’s time in 
learning new things. The longer a person works at making 
one kind or one part of toy the faster and better he can 
make it.” They make cuckoo-clocks, little tiny houses just 
like the ones they live in, wooden dolls and doll furniture, 
and many toys and souvenirs to sell to tourists. 

Another amusement for boys in villages and towns is 
the posterli. On the evening of Twelfth Day the children 
come together, bringing with them all kinds of instruments, 
Alpine horns, cattle bells, whips and tin kettles, and pass 
through the streets making what noise they can. The figure 
of a witch is placed on the back of a goat or donkey, 
or dragged on a sleigh, and it is with a view to the driving 
out of this witch or bad fairy that the procession is formed, 
and the noise made. When the figure has been paraded 
through the streets it is taken outside the town and left 
there, the noise ceases, and the children return home quietly. 

A peculiar custom is observed in the Munster valley. 
In the early spring all the boys under fourteen go from house 
to house ringing great bells which they have attached to their 
belt. They call it by words which mean “to coax the grass 


SWITZERLAND 


145 


IMP 


to grow.” The boys have eggs given to them, also chestnuts, 
rice, and even money, and thus have a fine feast. These 
feast-days are never forgotten, as little forgotten as the box 
on the ear when a boundary-stone was placed. We do not 
know if the latter-named custom is still observed; but as it 
was a very practical one it is worth speaking of. 

When there was occasion to place 
a new boundary-stone in any part of the 
country to mark the division of land, the 
farmers or land-owners always took a 
boy with them to the spot. They told 
him nothing of their intentions, but 
when they arrived, they gave him a sound 
and sudden box on the ear, or a good 
pinch, or in some cantons they even beat 
him. This was a wise precaution in 
case the stone should in course of 
time get covered with earth, or be de¬ 
stroyed, or taken away. The boy never 
forgot the spot where he received the 
sudden and sharp box he had not de¬ 
served, and even if he lived to the age 



A SWISS COSTUME 


of a hundred could settle any dispute that might arise on the 
subject. 

The boys and girls love to row in the evenings with their 
parents on the beautiful lakes, and admire the sunset as it 
tips the snowy mountain-peaks with rosy hues, or listen to 
sweet strains of music from the concert-hall, or watch the 
steamers as they pass to and fro; and then, when bedtime 
has come, they return home to sleep through a brief night, 
spend a brief day at school, and enjoy another as delightful 
evening as the last on their lovely and much-loved lake. 












Spain and Portugal. 


O NE of the first presents that 
a little Spanish child re¬ 
ceives from its parents 
when it shows signs of knowing 1 
that its feet were made to stand 
upon, and not merely to kick 
with, is a hat or cap of plaited 
straw, with a brim rolled up like 
a turban. 

When the child falls, this 
elastic roll protects its head from 
coming into rude contact with 
the tiled floor of the yard, or the rough pavement of the 
street, and is a precaution not to be despised in a country 
where the children grow up out of doors, and where the sun 
is so hot as to dry up all the grass. 

Not that all the streets and lanes are paved or hard. 
Donkeys and village children could ell us a different tale, 
enjoying as they do the fun of rolling about on their backs 
in a bed of dust that is thick and soft, and warm as a down 
pillow. 

The little turban-like hat, however, may be of as much 
use in the soft dust as on the hard pavement, for if a Span¬ 
ish baby had not something elastic ’round his head to make 

146 













SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 


47 


it bounce up again when he fell, he might very easily be suf 
focated before help arrived. 

The next things given the child, especially at Christmas, 
are the zambomba and castanets. 

The zambomba is a very favorite toy—a kind of drum, 
with a tube fastened and made to stand upright in the middle 
of the drumhead. When a child runs his hand up and down 
this tube, very queer, if not very musical, sounds are heard. 

What with the zambomba and the castanets, the guitar 
and the mandolin, the shouting and laughing, a Spanish 
household is not a quiet one; but the Spaniards love noise, 
and never scold their children into quietness. The castanets 
are shells of polished wood or ivory, hollowed-out, fastened 
together in pairs. They are attached to the thumb, and, lying 
in the palm of the hand, are made to clatter together 
and beat time to the dance, which is the principal amuse¬ 
ment in Spain. 

On Corpus Christi Day, the great festival day in Spain, 
and for eight days after, at set of sun, a great number of 
worshippers assemble in the Cathedral of Seville and kneel 
down at each side of the dimly-lighted dome. A number of 
priests surround the altar, before which are drawn up two 
long rows of boys from eight to ten years of age, dressed as 
Spanish cavaliers of the middle ages, with plumed hats and 
white stockings. At a given signal the sweet sounds of 
music are heard, coming from violins played in a distant 
part of the church, and the two rows of boys begin to move 
in graceful measure, beating time with their castanets. 

We often see wandering minstrels, players upon the 
guitar and tambourine, passing from place to place in search 
of a living. The man plays the guitar and the woman the 


148 


SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 


tambourine, in which she also collects the money given by 
the lookers-on. This is a custom which has been brought to 
our own country, though here the street organ is used in¬ 
stead of the guitar. 

The Spanish people are great cigarette-smokers; even 
the poorest are sure to have their ‘‘little cigars,” and to smoke 
in great content when they have nothing else to do. 

But now I must describe the home of the little Spanish 
ninos and ninas (boys and girls), and also will tell you what 
a patio is. 



A SPANISH BALCONV, 


Very simple is the home of the village children: a one¬ 
storied house painted white on the outside, openings for 
windows with wooden shutters, no glass, a large gate or 
door, which stands open all day and gives the passer-by a 
giimpse of the one common room that serves as a kitchen, 
dwelling-room, and workshop during the day, and bed-room 
for the father and the boys by night. 

A mat or two, or their manta (cloak), is their only bed. 
In a small inner room the mother and the girls sleep, eithw 















































































SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 


149 


on thin mattresses laid on the floor, or placed on a simple 
bedstead of boards resting* on a raised framework. 

In the large room there is sometimes a hearth, but 
oftener the fire is made on the clay floor, and the smoke has 
to find its way through the doorway or windows as best it 
may. One or two rush-bottomed chairs, a few hooks in the 
wall, a board adorned with the few cooking utensils of the * 
household and the common drinking-cup form the whole 
furniture, if we except a couple of stone water-jugs, half 
buried in the clay floor. 

Speaking of water reminds us that in Spanish towns 
water-carriers go about and sell to families, for water is not 
supplied in pipes to houses -as it is here. The water is car¬ 
ried in a cart or in a jar, or sometimes in a skin, and the 
passer-by may enjoy a cup of water in the street by paying 
a small sum. In Catalonia the common drinking-cup has a 
spout, and everyone drinks without touching it with his lips. 
They hold the cup rather high, and let the water or wine 
flow from the spout into their mouths. 

The houses in the old Moorish towns of Spain have 
beautiful gates, many of them gilt, and so finely made that 
they remind one of lacework. Through these the passer-by 
obtains a glimpse of a sparkling fountain, orange trees, 
oleanders, bright flowers, marble pillars, etc., and many 
merry children at play in the patio . 

This patio (yard) is the favorite resort in the summer 
months of all the members of a Spanish family. 

It has often a beautiful inlaid floor of Florentine mar¬ 
bles ; it has no roof, except such as is formed by the balco¬ 
nies which, resting on marble pillars, and draped by rich 
awnings and curtains surround it on every side. Below 
these are the bedrooms and kitchens. The patio is a de- 


SPAIN AND POBTUGAL 



SPANISH QYP8Y MUSICIANS. 


10 

















































SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 15 ' 

lightful, free, open space, where all the family can be to¬ 
gether, and yet not interfere with each other; where the 
zambomba and the castanets, the mandolin and the guitar 
take turn and turn about; where Don Alfonso, the father, 
smokes his cigar, while Donna Juanita, the mother, fans 
herself, and where the little ninos and ninas play at ball or 
at skipping-rope, and feed the gold fish in the fountain-basin 
from the time their nurse gives them their breakfast till 
they are put to bed at night. 

The homes of the children in Portugal are the same as 
these, only the fronts of the houses, instead of being daz- 
zlingly white, are made of tiles. 

The effect is prettier, but there are fewer balconies. 
After the breakfast, which consists of a cup of milk or choc¬ 
olate and a biscuit, the children are sent to school. If the 
school be at some distance they ride on mules. Three or 
four boys sit on one animal, and the boy who acts as mule- 
driver generally runs along by the side. 

The mules have all names, and the boy talks to them 
as he runs, speaking to them as if they were human beings. 

“Now, Antonio,” he says, “what has come into your 
stupid head? Don’t you know that the ninos must be at 
school by nine? Now, just hurry on, you lazy fellow; I’m 
ashamed of you! Do make haste!” 

The mule pricks up his ears and hurries on, as if con¬ 
scious that in a case of learning he must exert himself; but 
if he comes to a nice dusty lane—and there are many such— 
he may feel inclined for a roll. 

Down he goes, and the ninos with him. Each one 
laughs, the mule enjoying it as well, and all have a good 
roll till the mule feels inclined to return to his duty, take 
up his burden again, and then trot along. 



152 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 

% 

But however much a mule may enjoy a roll, he is care¬ 
ful not to indulge in it on a mountain path or pass. There 
he is sedate and steady, looks neither to the right nor the 
left, but jogs along quietly, never making a slip or a false 



step. He walks near the edge of the path, because he us¬ 
ually has a pair of great baskets strapped on his back, and 
































































































SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 


153 


if he went too near to the steep rocks on the one side there 
would be no room for his burden. He has no fear of slip¬ 
ping over the deep, deep precipice on the other side, for he 
is sure-footed and careful. This the mountaineers know, 
and, placing their little children in one of the deep baskets, 
they often entrust them to the care of the boy muleteer, whose 
daily duty it is to go from one mountain village to another. 

What a happy ride the little ones have! They are too 
young to know anything of the beauty of the snow mountains 
at the back, or the valley lying deep below them to the right, 
or the rocks and the bushes, and the rustic cross to the left; 
but they feel the pleasant mountain breeze, and the young 
muleteer laughs and plays with them, and the dog runs on 
before, and little Pedro smacks his mimic whip, and cries 
“Arre arre! (gee up! gee up!) to the mule, who does not 
think it worth his while to pay the least attention to either 
whip or voice. 

The mountaineers and the muleteers place great faith in 
the cleverness of the mules; but this is not always the case 
with travelers. 

It is not long since an Austrian prince, traveling over 
the Spanish mountains, and observing with some fear that 
his mule’s legs were quite at the edge of the precipice, called 
out to his guide— 

“Hallo! my friend, will you look after your animal, 
or he and I will both be over the precipice before long!” 

“Don’t trouble yourself,” answered the guide, as he 
kept on smoking, “the beast has more sense than you!” 
His plain talk may not have been pleasant to the prince, 
but the muleteer was loved in his own mountains and did 
not care. 

The schools are good, if not very numerous. 



i54 


SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 


Many of the old religious houses were changed into 
school-houses years ago, when the citizens turned the lazy 
monks and nuns, of whom they had grown tired, out of 
them. These are fine, roomy buildings; one of them being 
large enough to be dining-room and school-room for nearly 
four hundred orphan boys. 

The school hours are from nine to twelve; then a 
couple of hours are given for a second breakfast and rec¬ 
reation, after which school duties are taken up again and 
continue from two to four, unless in the hot days of summer. 

After four the children return home to dinner, which 
usually consists of fowl with rice, sweet potatoes, or pulchero 
the national dish. This dish is composed of a piece of 
boiled beef, the wing of a fowl, a piece of Spanish pepper, 
bacon and vegetables, and a slice or two of ham. A bottle 
of wine for papa and mamma, lemonade or barley water for 
the children, and a dessert of oranges, with a green leaf on 
the stock to show that they have been freshly gathered, green 
figs, dates, almonds and grapes, finish the meal. 

After dinner the children play or dance, rattling their 
castanets to the sound of a guitar, or drive or walk with the 
parents on the Alameda (promenade). 

Sometimes the lads may meet in the orange-groves, and 
have a kind of fight with the fallen fruit. In our country a 
snow-balling match is the nearest approach to this amuse¬ 
ment. The oranges hurt considerably at times; but, as you 
have read, the danger or pain does not deter the Spanish 
child from his play, even though he be injured by a knife. 
“Throwing things” has a great fascination for all boys in 
all countries. 

If the children do not dance or play at home, they go 
with their parents to the Alameda or promenade, where 


SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 


155 


young- and old, rich and poor, assemble to walk about and 
enjoy the cool of the evening. 

Here many pretty groups are formed of dons and donnas 
in their native costume, of children with their nurses, of citi¬ 
zens and peasants with sandals, short petticoats, gay shawls, 
and black mantillas, of gypsies and beggars. 

As a rule it is the gypsies who are found to beg in Spain. 

The Spaniard himself is too proud, and he never begs 
of a Spaniard. If he be very poor he may allow his chil¬ 
dren to ask alms of strangers, whom they are quick to 
recognize. 

‘'Oh, my dear caballero,” said a little fellow of six, run¬ 
ning up to an Englishman, who was walking about the 
streets of a town, “oh, my dear caballero, I do love you so 
much!” 

So saying, the pretty little dark-eyed boy put his hand 
into that of the Englishman, and looked up smiling. 

“Why, my boy,” exclaimed the gentleman, flattered, 
but much astonished, “you never saw me before in your life ! 
Pray, why do you love me?” 

“Because I know you will give me something,” was 
the reply. 

“But,” said the stranger, “how do you know that?” 

“Because, because,” replied the child, seeking for a 
reason, “because you have a red book under your arm.” 

The Englishman laughed, put his red-covered guide- 
1 book into one pocket and drew out of the other some quartos 
(small coins) to give to the boy. 


Kaffirs and Other Strange People 




^HE Kaffirs, though savages, without 
literature and without religion, have 
nevertheless an art. This is the 
art of music. Every family has at least 
one “Doctor of Music/* Every little 
collection of families composes the songs 
of the tribe, both the words and the 
music, and teaches them to the people, 
special care being given to the children. 
But music is not the only refinement to 
which the small Kaffirs are accustomed 
from their babyhood. 

Their homes are of poles and of 
sticks, thatched with grass. Such a hut 
is built in a day, and often it is entirely 
grass and looks like a big haystack, with 
a hole punched into it for the door. This 
opening is sometimes not more than six¬ 
teen inches wide and but little higher. 
The hut itself is between ten and thirty 
feet in diameter. In all tropical lands, 
as you know, there are two seasons. Instead of the Win¬ 
ter and Summer there are the rainy and dry seasons. 
During the rainy season a fire is built in the center of the 



























KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 157 

dirt floor and at night the family sleep about this fire. That 
means, perhaps, as many as forty .people. The most popular 
game of the children is the building of small toy huts, much 
like our own amusement, with building blocks. A mere tod¬ 
dler will draw a perfect circle on the ground, pile upon it the 
foundation of his toy house. Every Kaffir has a wonderful 
skill in drawing a circle, while, on the other hand, none of 
them can be taught to draw a square. The base lines of a 
Kaffir hut are always as true a circle as if they had been drawn 
with a compass. A Kaffir baby, when very young (two or 
three weeks old perhaps), is put into a bag-like sling of skin 
and tied to its mother’s back, and so goes wherever she, in 
her busy day’s life, goes. It has a very snug, soft nest on 
the whole, for the fur part of the skin is put next to the baby, 
whose legs are fastened above its mother’s waist; its arms are 
secured around her neck. Baby’s head is well plastered with 
grease and is never covered with anything else. But no 
Kaffir baby ever gets a sunstroke. Its parents, however, who 
cannot stand the sun, are often seen carrying a parasol of 
ostrich feathers or a tree-branch. There are few sights 
which would seem to us more funny than a great naked Kaffir 
walking proudly along beneath a very wobbly umbrella of 
ostrich feathers—feathers as undressed as himself. 

When a Kaffir baby is a few months old it rides on its 
mother’s hip. As soon as it can stand at all, it is put down 
and left to toddle about alone. The Kaffir baby three days 
after it is born is given as much sour milk as it will swallow. 
When it is older, it is fed upon sweet milk, and never again, 
till it becomes a man or woman, is it allowed to taste sour 
milk, for this is considered a great delicacy and the grown-ups 
take all there is. The Zulus are the most hospitable of all 
the Kaffir race. Often twenty or thirty self-invited guests 


i 5 8 


KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 


will gather about the huge steaming pot. Very often it hap¬ 
pens they are all strangers of the host, but they are all wel¬ 
come, nevertheless. They squat about the Melee pot, men, 
women, and children, and wait their turn for the spoon. 
There is only one spoon, no matter how large the number of 
guests, and it passes slowly from hand to hand, or rather 
from mouth to mouth, around and around the circle until the 
meal is finished. The Kaffirs, though savage, have their 
‘‘table manners” and are very careful to observe them. The 
porridge must be cooked and served hot in a three-legged 
pot. The spoon must be large, made of wood, and never by 
any chance allowed to stand up in the food. If it is, the por¬ 
ridge will be considered unwholesome. If we watch a dozen 
groups of children playing at ‘‘dinner” in the sand, with a 
splinter or shoot of sugarcane to represent the spoon, not 
once will we see it stand up in the sand, which in their game 
takes the place of porridge. 

The Zulus are the champion snuff-takers of the world. 
Every meal is followed by taking snuff, which really takes 
more time than the meal itself. The babies, who are so young 
that they can hardly stand alone, after eating all they can of 
the porridge gather about the family snuff-box and use its 
tickling contents until they nearly sneeze their round, gleam¬ 
ing heads off. They use the snuff with great ceremony. The 
Kaffirs do not scold their children. The child obeys if he 
likes; if he does not, the parents shake their heads lazily and 
laugh. But there are a few things which every Kaffir child 
must learn, whether he wants to or not. They all learn the 
laws of their tribes by heart and most exactly. As they have 
no literature or letters, this is the only way their laws can be 
kept from year to year. This branch of the little Kaffir's 
education is never neglected. 


KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 159 

1 he children are apt to fight. Even the girls have 
frequent fights among themselves. They fight to the bitter 
end. But Zulu children are not revengeful. They fight 
uercely, it is true; but, the fight finished, it is entirely for¬ 
gotten or else remembered pleasantly. The children must 
make their own toys. The boys make small cows from 
wood or clay. They mark out their own little cattle-pens 
on the ground, make villages from little twigs, and people 
them with clay figures which they form. Most Kaffir chil¬ 
dren are very clever in moulding human and animal figures 
out of clay. 

The Zulu mother is usually named after her oldest 
child with the prefix ‘ ma, M which of course means mother. 
The natives always called Mrs. Livingstone, whose oldest 
child was named Robert, “Ma-Robert.” When a Kaffir 
woman leaves a very young child for more than a few 
moments, she always performs some charm to protect it 
from evil until her return. According to the tribe to which 
she belongs, she rubs clay on its head, or sprinkles it with 
milk. The children are very inquisitive and graceful. The 
girls are wonderful water-carriers. A small black maiden 
will hurry along carrying on her head a jug or vase almost 
as big as herself, and brimful of water; up hill and down 
dale she goes swiftly, very swiftly, but she never spills a 
drop. The Kaffirs have peculiar ways of driving off the 
hungry elephants which often appear at nightfall and attack 
the well-cared-for fields of grain. Noise is the chief and 
most effective weapon used against them. We have been 
told, though we hardly believe it, at such times the Kaffir 
mothers often beat their children to make them cry and 
shriek to help scare off the elephants. 

The Kaffirs are very thrifty. The boy begins very 
































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 161 

early to save. He buries his money and valuables in the 
jungle. When he has collected enough he buys a cow, and 
when he has been able to buy six or a dozen cows he buys 
a wife. There is a large difference, of course, between six 
and twelve cows, but both the quality of the cows and 
quality of the girl are to be considered. When a girl baby 
is born there is much rejoicing, for a man’s wealth is often 
counted by the number of his daughters and of his cattle. 
But in justice to even a savage, we must say that the Kaffir 
girl is never sold as a wife to any man against her will. 
The Kaffir kings (and each tribe has its own king) have 
their choice of all the maidens of the nation, and any girl 
who meets the king’s selection knows that her father will 
be paid for her ten times the usual rate. During a Kaffir 
courtship the maiden visits the man, never he the girl. Unless 
she can walk ten or twenty miles to be wooed, and then 
home again and do it day after day, her chances of being 
married are very slim. All peoples, we have seen, have 
their festivals and holidays, and the Kaffirs are no excep¬ 
tion. The Zulus have a great festival every year in which 
the children take part and to which they look forward with 
the greatest interest and excitement. The king gives a 
large feast, followed by dancing, shouting and singing. 

The Curious Pygmies of Africa. 

There is a very curious race in Africa who are dwarfs. 
The very tallest one among them is hardly more than four 
feet high. Their hair grows in little tufts or bunches all 
over their heads, and the men as well as the women let it 
grow all their lives. 

The children are the funniest little things you ever saw. 
If you were to go near them they would huddle together like 


THE KING AND QUEEN OF A NATIVE TRIBE GOING OJN A VTRJT 


162 


KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 
























































































































































































































A SREET SCENE IN CAIRO, EGYPT 

This oicture shows the wonderfully carved balconies and doorways and the costumes of the natives. On the right we can see the earthen water-jars and in 
* H ' ‘ the center the entrance to a store where camel’s wool is sold. 























THE SHIP OF THE DESERT—THE CAMEL 

These wonderful animals will carry their masters swiftly over the dry, hot sands for days at a time without 
food or water. Their endurance is more remarkable than that of any other animal. 









KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 1^3 

a pack of dogs and hide their heads. The mothers of these 
little pigmies look almost like babies themselves. 

Although they are so small, they are full of daring and 
courage, and you will find it very wise to become friends 
with them at once. 

Their houses are like bee-hives, for they gather small 
branches and bend them over into a curved roof, fastening 
the ends in the ground. The doorway is so low that one 
has to creep in on one’s hands and knees. The question of 
clothing doesn’t bother them very much, as their only gar¬ 
ment is an apron made of palm leaves. 

These queer little people have a very easy time of it, 
but I hardly think you would care to live as they do., They 
have no music or musical instruments, except striking a bow 
with an arrow to keep time while they dance, and they have 
no idea of tunes or songs. They have no bread, and some¬ 
times do not even roast the meat which they kill. Having 
no matches, you may wonder how they light a fire. They 
hunt the ground until they find two pieces of flint and strike 
them together to get sparks, just as nearly all the primitive 
races had to do. 

t 

They are extremely honest. The little boys and girls 
would not touch any of your toys or playthings, even if they 
had an opportunity to run off with them. 

The little boys and little girls, although so very, very 
• small, are able to shoot their arrows straight to the mark, 
and can shoot one, two and three arrows in succession so 
rapidly that the third one leaves the bow before the first one 
drops to the ground. If they travel through the forest and 
a little boy sees a cluster of bananas hanging on a tree, but 
not yet ripe, he shoots his arrow into the center of the cluster 
as a sign that when it ripens it shall be picked by him alone. 


164 KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 

These tiny children fish in a way that would make you 
ashamed to use a hook or a trolling-spoon. They tie pieces 
of meat to the ends of their lines and dangle them in the 
water. You would think it silly to expect to catch anything 
in such way as that, but they are so clever, and so skillful, 
and they give such quick pulls just at the right moment, that 
they land fish after fish in a very few minutes. 

Malay Boys and Girls. 

The houses in New Guinea are sometimes built near the 
water, and are raised on poles. The floors are made of 
boards, and the houses are covered with grass. In fact, 
they are very like our dove-cotes in appearance. The people 
climb up by means of a rough ladder. In most parts of New 
Guinea the houses are about nine feet from the ground. 

The little children are carried in net-work bags upon their 
mothers’ shoulders, by a kind of strap which is passed across 
the forehead. As soon as the children can walk they are 
made to carry loads and light burdens to or from the fields, 
There is a great deal of work done in some parts of New 
Guinea; in others hunting is the chief occupation. The 
children run about without any clothes until they are a year 
or two old, and even for some time after that they have not 
much dress, but they paint themselves and wear feathers. 
When the children are very young they are left hung up in 
their little net-cradles just as the Indian baby is in his cradle. 

These New Guinea children are now taught by mission¬ 
aries in places; but they have very little, if any, religion, 
and grow up almost wild. Quarrels are rare amongst them ; 
and though we cannot call the people “civilized,” they are 
not savages. The children are taught to work, to hunt, and 
fish. The men provide the food, which the women cook. 


KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 165 

The boys and girls have no education but working, and no 
young man may marry until he can find a house, and is able 
to sustain his wife in it. 

The inhabitants of Malacca are called Malays, and you 
will find that Malay children are very pretty. They are 
brought up in the Mohammedan religion, and they are taught 
'to write in the Arabian character. You will be glad to hear 
that Malay children are very fond of pets. Their fathers and 
mothers wish them to become acquainted with animals, so 
you will find the young Malay with many pets, particularly 
birds, which the children catch with bird-lime, and tame. 
The animals are not afraid of them at all, for the children 
are kind, and seldom, if ever, tease and torment them, as 
more civilized children often do. 

The young Malays generally keep a baboon as a pet, 
and when they want any cocoa-nuts Mr. Monkey is sent up 
to the top of the tree to pick and throw down the fruit. 
Villages, called “ Rampings,” are built in the woods, so the 
baboon has not far to go. 

The children pass their lives very quietly, instructed, 
when practicable, like all Mussulman nations, and worship 
accordingly. They learn the Koran after the manner of the 
children of Turkistan—when they learn anything at all—and 
what little they are taught is in an almost unknown tongue. 

The children are frequently full of fun, and good-tem¬ 
pered, but when they grow up they are very jealous, and one 
will sometimes get terribly angry, and stab at every one as 
he goes until he is killed. 

But the young folk of Malacca are quiet and inoffensive, 
and though they have not many advantages, they are brought 
up to reverence their elders, to be kind to all dumb creatures, 
and to practice religion according to their lights 


1 66 KAFFIRS AND OTHER STRANGE PEOPLE 

The children of Central Asia have very little time as chil¬ 
dren. When we tell you that a girl is at eighteen almost an 
old woman, and that the law permits marriage at nine years 
old, you will see that there is not much chance for play or 
childish amusement. 

The people are Mussulmans, and their sacred rites we 
need not describe. When a child is born, if a boy, the 
father buries a mutton-bone under the floor. If the child be a 
girl, a rag doll is buried in a similar place opposite the door 
of the room in which the child is born. The little baby has 
no shirt on for four days, and when nine days have passed 
grandmamma brings a cradle in which the child is strapped 
on a ‘'bed of barley.” These are curious customs. The 
parents are congratulated, and friends come with birthday 
presents. Then the light which has been burning near the 
child to keep off evil spirits, or “evil eyes,” is removed, and 
the child remains in its little cradle while the feasting pro¬ 
ceeds, for there are two feasts in the case of a boy, and one 
when the child is a girl. 

The child undergoes certain ceremonies which are com¬ 
mon in the East; and when its hair is first cut the hair is put 
in a balance with gold and silver, and when the proper 
weight is reached, the sum of money is handed to the poor 
in charity. After forty days have passed the Turkistan baby 
is carried out in the streets, but never till the forty days have 
expired, for fear of evil happening. 

At six years old, or earlier, the children are sent to 
their lessons at elementary schools, where they read aloud 
when they have learned the alphabet and the Koran by heart. 
At about the age of sixteen the father of a lad begins to 
think it is time he got married. 


u 


Italy. 



AND of music and song, of 
art and ruins, of gentle 
breezes and glorious skies; 
and more than all else, the 
land of beautiful children. In 
no other country are little boys 
and girls more free to roam 
in the sunshine or more ten¬ 
derly loved. Let us begin 
this chapter then by describ¬ 
ing the Italian nursery. And 
when we say '‘nursery” what 
_ a vision of cosy, pleasant, 

homelike rooms at once suggests itself to us, with their bright 
picture-papered walls, on which "Jack and the Giant,” 
"Cinderella and her Sisters,” "Hop-o’-my-thumb and the 
Ogre,” "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf,” all live 
side by side in peace. Nurseries with their cheerful fires 
and high brass fenders, their cushioned rocking-chairs and 
their low stools, their chintz curtains of odd patterns and 
bright colors, their great rocking-horses, their toys, and last 
but not least, their baths! 

It is true that not every child has a nursery even in our 

dear country. The cold cellar, the cheerless attic, the damp 

167 













ITALY 


168 

steps under the arch by the river, the old broken-down hut, 
the still more broken-down shed, where the cold, and the 
wind, and the rain get in at will, are the only nurseries 
that many children know, the only recollection of childhood 
they will have in after years. For poverty is found in all 
countries and the children of the poor know little about com¬ 
forts, though they are often as happy as those of the rich. But 
the nursery of the Italian child! What is it like? Has it pic¬ 
tured walls, its comforts, its toys, and its baths? Yes and no. 
Its ceiling is the deep blue sky, its walls are pictured by the 
white-blossoming almond tree, the olive, the mulberry, or the 
still, dark cypress; its toys are the butterflies, the birds, and 
the golden rose-beetles; its floor is a wondrous inlaid 
work of sunshine and warm soft shadows; or the child may be 
seated upon a portion of ruined wall, held by its parent, who 
has little else to do. Nature herself has prepared and deco¬ 
rated and warmed the nursery for her southern child, and it 
is just as well that she has done so, for Italy is poor, and we 
should have to look far and wide before we found anything 
like an American nursery in its small and dirty cottages. 

Even the palaces are gloomy and dark, with thick walls 
and small windows; and the rich baby in its costly cradle of 
carved wood, with silken hangings, is no happier than the 
poor washerwoman’s child, who, with a clothes-basket for a 
cradle, crows and laughs by the river-side, while its mother 
beats the linen before she dips it into the stream; or the 
fisherman’s baby, who lies upon a heap of nets by the sea¬ 
shore; or the mountain-child, whose cradle is a wisp of straw, 
placed on the stone steps before the door of its father’s hut; 
or the children in the market who sleep amid the noise and 
bustle. 


ITALY 


169 

Yes, Nature has done well to provide a very beautiful 
nursery for the child of Italy, one which all must use; and 
she has thought of water for baths as well, though few there 
think of bathing. 


In the mountain villages the children grow up, unwashed 
and uncombed, among their playmates, the funny little black, 



WATCHING THE ARTIST PAINT. 

smooth-skinned, long-legged pigs, which, with the chickens 
and ducks, seem to think the house and its surroundings 
their own, and act as if they owned it. 

A foreign gentleman was once wandering among the 
mountains in the early morning. A boy of about twelve, with 
bright black eyes and curly hair, came singing along the 
mountain path. All Italians sing—boys and girls, men and 
































































































































ITALY 


170 

women, well fed or hungry, happy or sad. The Italian 
proverb says:— 

“ If I sing the whole day I’m without bread, 

And if I don’t sing I’m without bread still.” 

So what’s the use, thinks the Italian, of making- matters 
that are bad worse? He sings in spite of his troubles. 

This boy was tall and slender, and looked very pictur¬ 
esque in his faded brown jacket, his old knee-breeches, and 
dirty sandals. He swung a stick in his hand, and what re¬ 
mained of an ancient felt hat, bound by a red ribbon, was 
placed jauntily on his curly locks. The mountain breeze 
played with the open collar of his shirt, and blowing it aside 
left his neck and chest bare. 

The gentleman watched the lad approach, and thought 
what a pretty picture he would make; but as he came nearer 
the shirt looked so dirty, and there was such a paste of grime 
on the boy’s face and breast that his opinion began to change. 
Nearer and nearer the boy came, and dirtier and dirtier he 
looked. At last the gentleman could keep silence no longer. 

“ Halla, my man,” cried he in Italian, ‘'Did you ever 
wash yourself?” 

The boy looked up in surprise, but not at all ashamed. 

“Wash?” said he, as if the idea that one could wash 
occurred to him then for the first time; “ giammai, signore, 
giammaiY ’ (“never, sir, never!”) 

When the hot summer months are over the inhabitants 
of the mountain villages come down to the towns, especially 
to Rome, to earn money by singing, or as models for artists. 

Such is the child-life of a large class in Italy, a shade 
better, though, than the life of the bandit’s child. 

He, poor little fellow, is perhaps the most to be pitied, 
for he has no chance at all in the wild, lawless life that the 











OJ 

t /3 

V 

33 

H 


W 

s 

H 

to 

O 

w 

o 

& 

<J 

Q 


S5 

C 


d I 

rt_| 

** C 
cS 


,<u C 

'+-< <u 
tH 6 

3 ,z 

>> 0 
Z' <u 

H t-i 

o « 
g o 

O «*h 

l—< i_> 

M cfl 

33 *0 
3 C 
VM rt 

3 « £ii 

oo 22 

3 £ 

2'C 

33 Ou 
-u ^ 

*.h 
<5 J: 

oo-^ 

3 a 

je.S 

" 0 ) 
0 ) 3 

33 c3 
^ >> 
•a a) 






' « 















ITALY 


i/i 

brigands lead of learning anything good, or of escaping an 
outlaw’s fate. 

The brigand, however, is very fond of his children, and 
it is singular to see that, though he has no ties of religion 
and law with regard to himself, he desires them above 
everything else for his child. 

Some years ago an old priest was traveling from one vil¬ 
lage to another. It was dusty and hot, and the way was long. 
The priest was glad on looking back to see that a peasant 
woman, seated in her donkey-cart, was coming that way. 
Of course the woman asked the priest to take a seat in her 
cart, and, of course, he very willingly consented. At a turn oi 
the road three robbers sprang out of the thicket. 

“The Madonna has sent you to us,” said one of the 
rogues, in a pious tone of voice. “ Do not fear, worthy father; 
come down and go with us.” 

“ It was all very well to say “ Do not fear,” but the poor 
priest did fear, and the peasant woman shivered in her san¬ 
dals. Still there was nothing for it but to obey. 

After three hours’ wandering through woods and over 
mountain paths, they came to a small open space or plateau, 
where a group of bandits awaited them, one of whom held a 
little child in his arms. 

“Worthy father,” said he, approaching the priest and 
showing him the child, “this is my son, and I wish him to 
become a Christian. Christen him or you shall be hanged.” 

You may imagine that the worthy priest made what 
haste he could to christen the baby. It received a long row 
of high-sounding names, beginning with Michael Angelo 
and ending with Giuseppe. 

When the ceremony was over, the bandit-father presented 
the priest with a purse of gold, the woman with a pair of 


ITALY 


172 

costly earring's, and then both were led back to the turn of 
the road, where the donkey was munching thistles by the 
wayside, not troubling itself about the delay so long as 
thistles were to be found. 

Sometimes the bandits will even have their child chris¬ 
tened in church. 

On such occasions they descend in a body to one of the 
mountain villages, and force the priest to christen the child. 
The priest and the villagers are, as a rule, so frightened that 
they do all that they are told, but they have generally no 
cause to complain. The brigand is at such times a gentle¬ 
man; he fires salutes in the village streets in honor of the 
event, throws money on all sides, and pays for barrels of 
wine, which priest and villagers drink without any scruples 
of conscience. 

All Italians rejoice at a child’s birth. First, because 
they love all young, soft, tender things. Besides there are a 
thousand superstitious reasons why every new-born baby (no 
matter into how crowded a cradle) gets a hearty welcome. 
They believe the end of the world to be near at hand, but 
that no children will be born within seven years of this great 
event, therefore, each birth means at least seven years more 
of life. 

The christening ceremonies are entered into with the 
greatest pleasure by all who know the parents. After the 
baptism and sacraments are over, the baby is passed around 
for all to kiss and with each kiss a coin is tucked tightly into 
the folds of the baby’s many swaddling clothes. The coins 
are not large, but are always gladly given. Best of all, no 
name goes with them, and because of them baby leaves the 
place a person of property. 

The poor children at home do not have too much to eat, 


ITALY 


1 73 


but no doubt they enjoy what they get. Polenta , the fa¬ 
vorite Italian dish, is very simple, and to our taste not 
very good. It is made in this way: A pan of water is 
placed on the fire, and a quantity of flour, with a little 
salt, is stirred into it for some time till it hardens to a 
yellow-looking mass, when it is turned out onto a board. 
The father of the family then takes a piece of twine, and by 
means of it measures the cake into equal portions, one for 
each member of the family. A very small piece of cheese 
made from sheep’s milk is given to each child to eat with 
his polenta , and that is his principal meal. Now and then, 
if it be the patron saint’s day of little Antonio, or Giuseppe, 
or Giulia, the mother fries a few slices of liver i i lard, but it 
is seldom that such luxuries are indulged in. Macaroni is a 
favorite food with the Italians, and is familiar to us all. 

So terribly poor are some of the fathers and mothers 
that they leave their little ones at a convent where foundlings 
are cared for. If the mother leaves with it any special mark, 
such as a ribbon, a broken coin, or a peculiar garment, that 
mark is carefully saved by the nuns. The years go by 
and if the parents find that they can now afford it, they 
claim the child, and prove their ownership by the other half 
of the coin or bit of ribbon. The parents never send their 
babies away in this manner unless, indeed, there is no room 
in the house for them, and the cake of polenta is all too 
small for the mouths it has to fill. 

Such is the life of the children of the very poor, and they 
form in Italy by far the largest class. Then there are the 
children of the families which were noble and were rich once, 
but have become poor. They are much to be pitied. Too 
proud to work, too poor to study, they lead a lazy life, always 
wishing for the good turn of fortune which never comes. 


174 


ITALY 


Our little Italian cousins do not give or receive their 
Christmas presents until Twelfth night, nor do they have 
our kind of Christmas tree, but they have very good times 
you may be sure, just the same. 

In Lent buns are eaten, which the children are very fond 
of, called maritozze , made of the kernels of the pine-cone 
mixed with oil and sugar. On St. Joseph’s Day there are 
the doughnuts, made of flour and rice fried in oil or lard. 
At Easter there are eggs; in May a kind of mixed cake cut 
in rings, and ornamented with fine red tassels. At Christ¬ 
mas, when they hail the coming of the holy Christ-child, the 
Italian children eat torone and pan giallo. Tor one is a hard 
candy made of honey and almonds, and covered with crys¬ 
tallized sugar. Pan giallo is a mass of plums, citron, almonds, 
sugar, pine-seeds, and pistachio, all made up into a tight, 
tough mass. 

But the great festival of the year is the Carnival, when 
the streets are full of clowns, giants, and dwarfs with im¬ 
mense noses and laughing masks, and men with bear, dog, 
and donkey heads ; when boys and girls may be as mis¬ 
chievous as they please, and play all kinds of tricks on any 
one they choose without anyone getting angry; when 
bouquets and bonbons, sometimes flour and eggs, are thrown 
from balcony to balcony; when the laughing and shouting 
have no end; when everyone is merry, no one is cross. 
Ah! then I think all children would like to be in Italy, if it 
were only to dress up in masked array and to join in the 
great fun. 


Egypt and the Barbary States. 


O NCE upon a time, O youth, 
when Rhodopis (the rosy- 
cheeked one) was bathing in 
the waters of our sacred Nile, a 
mighty eagle espied her little red 
slippers lying on the banks of the 
river, and he seized them with his 
beak, carried them to the palace, 
and laid them at the feet of the 
king. And the wonder-gift found favor in the eyes of the 
monarch, who proclaimed it to be his sovereign will that the 
owner of the red slippers, and none other, should become his 
queen. And all the ladies of Egypt essayed to thrust their 
feet into the tiny red slippers, but they fitted none but Rhodopis, 
the rosy-cheeked one, and she became queen, and reigned in 
the land.” Thus relates the old turbaned Egyptian, as, sitting 
cross-legged on his seat, with his jars around him, he awaits 
customers for the sweet, delicious waters of the Nile, and the 
little Egyptian boy who stands near, listens with just as deep 
interest as our little folks do when nurse relates to them the 
old, old fairy-tale of Cinderella, which had its origin in this old, 
old Egyptian legend. 

The Egyptian child is fond of stories, of fairy tales, and 
of legends, but in this he is much like boys in every part of 
the world, 

J 75 








176 


EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 


His land is the land of marvels in nature and marvels in 
art; of the wondrous Nile, to whose yearly rise and fall his 
people owe their food; of the desert, with its waste of sand 
and its fair oases; of the mirage, the wonderful picture of dome 
and castle and waving palm-groves which, with its phantom 
beauties, enchants and deceives the eye of the weary traveller 
in the vast wilderness; of the simoom, the hot scorching wind 
that, raising the fine grains of sand, forms the sand column, 
fatal in its terrible progress to man and beast: of the gigantic 
pyramids and the strange sphinx; of ancient tombs and wide- 
spreading ruins of palaces, towers, and mighty cities. 

Yes, the land of Egypt is a land of wonders, a land of 
magicians and sorcerers, of 
boys and girls who grow up 
among these strange 
scenes, of veiled ladies and 
turbaned pashas, of beau¬ 
tiful mosques and palaces, 
mud huts and dirty hovels. 

As soon as an Egyptian child is born, the fears of his 
parents beset his path. The dread “evil eye” may fall on 
him, and so he is left unwashed and undressed, and rendered 
as unlovely as possible, in the hope that this “evil eye” may 
pass him over and fail to notice him. 

Not content with leaving him unwashed, the mother 
blackens his forehead or his cheeks with soot or clay, or even 
covers him with a thick black veil in her anxiety to save him 
from imaginary ills; and friends and relations coming to visit 
him or his parents are careful to say: “What an ugly child 1 
Why, he is a perfect fright!” To which strange compliments 
the smiling father and mother listen with pleasure, as they 



A CAMP IN THE DESERT. 
























EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 


177 



know that this form of speech is adopted to deceive their 
enemy. 

Poor deluded parents! Instead of saving their child 
from the “evil eye,” they give it to him, for the saddest thing 
is that the poor children, so neglected and dirty, fall victims 
to the disease, very common in Egypt, called ophthalmia, and 
they often lose the sight of one eye, if they do not become, as 
in many cases, completely blind. The Egyptian woman anx¬ 
iously waits for 
the day when 
her baby shall 
first see and 
notice a croco¬ 
dile. All child¬ 
ren are taught 
to gaze earn¬ 
estly up on 
every croco¬ 
dile they see by 
chance; for the 
Egyptians be¬ 
lieve that to see 

a crocodile brings luck, especially to the young. Many sick 
children are carried miles and miles that they may look upon 
one, since all Egypt knows that this will cure illness and 
sharpen the little one’s appetite. 

Not until the child of Moslem or Turk is one year old does 
he get his drst washing; a Copt (ancient Egyptian) does not 
think it “lucky” to let a drop of water touch the baby until he 
is baptized. Then he is dipped in the water but this dipping 
has to last him a long time. Does it not seem strange 
to us? 









































EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 



The Copts of the Egyptian race are one of the most 
unique peoples on earth. They are the unmixed and un¬ 
changed descendants of the Egyptians, who lived when the 
Pyramids were built, thousands and thousands of years 
before the Christian era. They have their own church, avoid 
all other creeds, and never marry out of their own race and 
church, and so have preserved to a wonderful degree the 
look and manners of their ancestors. They look startlingly 
like the men and women carved upon the ancient tombs and 
temples. The children are queer looking little objects, with 
very thin arms and legs and we must say it, remarkably fat 
abdomens. 

And what is the cradle of a little fellah f * 

You would guess a long time before you found the right 
answer, and yet it is a very appropriate one, suiting its home 
to its surroundings, and its own dirty condition. In the 
summer-time it is the mud outside of the house, in the winter¬ 
time it is the mud inside of the house. The hut itself is 
built of mud; the roof is made of patches of mud plastered 
on rough beams, or of bundles of reeds; windows there are 
none, furniture there is none, beds there are none. Some¬ 
times the baby is wrapped up in its mother’s dirty burko 
(face-veil), and stowed away in a corner, but more frequent¬ 
ly it has no clothing at all, or anything to serve as bed. 

The kitchen is a flag or stone outside the house, with a 
pan or two for the preparation of the simple food, which is 
conveyed to the mouth by means of the thumb and two fin¬ 
gers of the left hand, as knives and forks are things unknown. 
The right hand has to serve as dinner-napkin. 

Comfortless, indeed, would the life of a little fellah be if 

* Th e fellaheen (plural oi fellah) are the farmers, the cultivators of the soil, the keepers of the cattle—to 
short, those who in many countries are called the peasants. 



EGYPT AND THE BARBAKY STATES 179 

the soft Egyptian air did not surround him, and the bright 
Egyptian sun look down upon him. They have no fear of 
rain in Egypt for it rarely or never falls. 

The houses of the richer fellaheen are composed of two 
or more courts, or yards, with rooms open at the top, or only 
partially roofed in with beams or reeds. One of these courts 
is destined for the cattle, the other for the family. 

All Egyptian children are kind to animals. The fellah 
boys and girls make pets, friends and playmates of the 
creatures which they take 
care of. There was in 
former times a festival 
held at Bubastis, in the 
eastern part of the coun¬ 
try, to the goddess Bast, 
or Sekhet, who was rep¬ 
resented by the head of 
a cat, and to Bubastis 
mummies of favorite 
cats were sent for pres¬ 
ervation. Sometimes 
even a cat was called smoking a narghile. 

Bubastis, but now its familiar name is Mau, or Mie, 
showing that the language of Egyptian cats is not unlike 
that of our own domestic pets. 

In Cairo there is to this day a home for destitute cats; 
and it is still a popular belief that twin children change into 
cats at night if they go hungry to bed, and while their bodies 
are lying apparently sleeping at home, their cat-spirits are 
wandering abroad in search of food. Therefore, to be cruel 
to a cat, which may be a hungry boy or girl in disguise, is 
not to be thought of, and puss must of necessity be cared 
for, loved and respected. 






i8o 


EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 



A CAMEL CARRYIi 


TENTS, BAGGAGE AND CHILDREN 





































































EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 


1 8 1 


The donkey-boys begin their daily work with much 
noise, shouting and quarreling. They generally pick up 
some foreign words and phrases, and think themselves very 
clever if they make use of them. The donkey bears a 
foreign name, to begin with. “Jack Sprat! hoo! good 
donkey! Take Jack Sprat!” “Ned Noggins! sare! 
fine donkey! Take Ned Noggins!” 

Then when they have induced any “Franks” (Euro¬ 
peans) to hire them and their donkeys, they wave their 
clubs and whoop and laugh and shout, to advise all foot- 
passengers of the danger they are in of being run over. 

“Take care! ” they shout to a Frank, 
“Sakim!” to a Turk. “Ya khawa- 
geh! Ya bint!” (“You woman! 
you girl! out of the way!”) “Ya 
sheik!” (“Mind, old man!”) “Ye- 
meenek ! ” (“To the right! ”) “Shim- 
alek! ” (“To the left!”) So they 
shout and screech to drown the voices 
of the small street vendors, their rivals 
in noise. “Honey! oh honey! ” sings 
out one of these latter. “Oh oranges! 
oh grapes, consolers of the mournful! ” 
“Pips! oh pips!” (water melons) cries another. “Oh 
roses! blossoming from the sweat of the prophet! sycamore 
figs! oh odors of paradise! oh henna! for the lovely finger 
tips of the youthful, for the hair of the aged, for the beauti¬ 
fying of the tails of steeds? oh henna! ” 

Watch with interest the group in the picture on the fol¬ 
lowing page, where a number of Egyptian lads are playing at a 
game peculiar to the country. This game, called “ Mankalah,” 
is played with cowries, or shells. Another, the “ Gered,” re- 





MUMMIES. 





















182 


EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 


quires great bodily exertion. Throwing the ball, or two 
hoops, which are caught on ivory rods, has been a favorite 
pastime in all ages, and chess, draughts, and backgammon 
are common games. Then all are fond of singing as they 
work, and in the villages and on the banks of the Nile the 
sound of a rude kind of drum is often heard, and the reed 
pipes, both single and double, sound very prettily along the 
river’s banks. 

Girls are generally given names 
of pretty meaning, as “Gazelle,” 

“Flower,” or “Princess.” Boys 
are frequently called ‘ ‘ Gergas 
(George), as St. George is the pa¬ 
tron saint of the Copts. A strange 
custom is still kept up with regard 
to names. Three wax candles are 
lighted; to each a name is given, 
one belonging to a saint among 
them. The taper that burns the 
longest gives the child its name. 

Little as Egyptian children 
learn, as a rule, they are taught 
two very important things—great 



PLAYING AT “MANKALAH . 1 


reverence for their parents and for the aged. This is much 
to be remarked alike in the country, where the fellaheen 
leave their little ones to grow up the best way they can, in 
the homes of the rich, in towns where the children are spoiled 
and pampered to their heart’s content, where the girls are 
brought up in idleness, waited upon by numbers of slaves, 
and where the boys are thought wonderfully clever if they 
can read and write, recite the Koran, and work out an or¬ 
dinary sum. 


12 















































EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 183 

Children of Northern Africa. 

Children of Northern Africa, in the Barbary States, are 
of eight distinct races, the Kadyles, Arabs, Moors, Jews, 
Turks, Kologious, Negroes and Mozabites. The Arabs, the 
Jews and the Turks keep the same customs and same habits 
and live the same lives that they do wherever we may 
find them. 

The Mozabites lived for many years on the Sahara 
Desert, but are now to be found in all the states and towns 
along the southern shore of the Mediterranean. The chil¬ 
dren are taught to farm and take care of their many camels 
and sheep. They are taught to chase the lion, gazelle and 
ostrich, which is their principal amusement and almost their 
only amusement, all except for the few chances they have of 
seeing the puppet shows in the Algerian towns and cities. 
Mozabite women have more liberty than any other Moham¬ 
medan women and the children are free to go everywhere 
with their mothers. They sit with them in the long quiet 
evenings on the housetops where the family gathers to sing 
with their soft gentle voices or to listen with breathless 
interest to a professional story-teller. We have found in 

nearly every country in the south of Europe that these story¬ 
tellers are among the greatest delights the children have. 

We are sure that it would be nice to have them in this 
country, for it is more pleasant, we think, to have stories 
told to us than to read them for ourselves in a book. 

Ramadan is the Mohammedan’s Lent, and is celebrated 
just the same as in Turkey. The chief amusement for chil¬ 
dren, however, in Morocco and Algeria is the African Punch 
and Judy show. These shows are managed really very 
much like our own. The figures hit and kick each other, 
make love, and act in almost every way like our own. 


184 


EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 



The children laugh and cry, and enjoy it more than any¬ 
thing they see. The chief actor pla3^s one part, but wears 
many costumes. 

The children of this part of the world are taught that beau¬ 
tiful handwriting is of the greatest importance. Even the 
youngest boys can write and draw with wonderful ease and 
skill. Arithmetic is 
always taught though 
not more than the 
most simple figuring; 
but the little Moors 
take to it naturally for 
they are all born 
traders. A story is 
told of an old college 
professor who was 
spending a holiday in 
Algiers. He went into 
a native shop, and 
there a small ten- 
year old Moor, who 
had never gone, and 
who never would go 
beyond the Rule of 
Three, managed to 

AN ALGERIAN WOMAN. 

cheat him out of 

at least ten cents, a big sum of money there. After his re¬ 
turn to the hotel, it took the professor half an hour and a 
whole sheet of paper to figure it out. The Moorish boy 
finishes school when he is thirteen, but he seldom loses, or 
drops the friendship of his teacher. The boys and girls 
become very much attached to their schoolmasters, and it is 











EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 185 

unusual to see a Moorish man or woman married without 
the old teacher being present. He rarely scolds or has need 
to. The little children love him, and they are glad to do 
what he wishes them to. 

The schoolroom is small and quite open to the street, 
and though much is going on outside for the children to see 
and hear, they keep their minds upon their work and attend 
to nothing but their school and their lessons. 

The Kadyles live in all the mountains along the coast, 
from Tripoli to Morocco. Many of them tattoo a small 
Greek cross on the foreheads of their children above the eyes. 
The reason they give for doing this is as follows: Many, 
many years ago (they say) a light colored, warlike people 
came from the northern kingdoms, plundering and killing. But 
those of the Mohammedans were spared who had painted a 
cross on their foreheads. To this day the custom still lives. 

The Kadyles are very poor. Almost all that save any¬ 
thing hide it without telling anyone. Many of the children, 
when the parents die, are unable to find this little treasure, 
and are thrown upon the world and must make their way 
alone. They sleep in the open, go in rags, and in every pos¬ 
sible way save until they can gather together a hundred 
Boojoos.* The boy with this sum can buy a musket and 
afford to get married, and when he has a wife and a gun 
he is well set up in life, and perfectly satisfied. The 
Kadyles boy, as a rule, has one accomplishment, the only 
one. He plays the strange, weird, mysterious melodies of 
his race upon a peculiar wooden whistle. The music is 
very beautiful, but very sad. 

The boy, though dark when a baby, grows slightly 
darker in time; but the girl will never darken. In fact, the 


*A small, native coin. 



186 EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 

sun rarely touches her face, for she lives in shady gardens 
and darkened rooms and even when she does go into the 
street she is heavily veiled, as we have shown in the foregoing 
illustration, and it is an everyday affair (but a sight, of course, 
for feminine eyes alone) to see a Moorish grandmother with 
the brilliant, clear, pink and white skin of a twelve-year-old 
maiden. 

The children of Barbary play well such games as chess 
and checkers, even when very young. On sunny afternoons 
you may see a group of eager-faced boys, brown-eyed Turks, 
soft-eyed Moors, strong-limbed Arabs and graceful Alger¬ 
ians gathered about a chess-board at which a Kadyles and 
negro boy are playing. All the tribes and nationalities for¬ 
get their differences of religion, of habits and of life around 
a chess-board. Though they may not eat together, sleep to¬ 
gether, walk or talk together on the streets, they do play 
chess together and praise each other’s skill and victories with 
perfect impartiality. 

Before we say good-by to these mixed races of the Bar¬ 
bary States we must notice a very peculiar custom of the 
soldiers. They all can and do knit. They knit as they 
walk about the streets, they knit on duty, they knit whenever 
they change guard. Why, we cannot understand, for none 
of them wear stockings. 

The three things the Mohammedan is always taught 
to honor are his religion, his parents and lunatics. The 
harmless madmen are thought by them to be inspired by 
divine powers and the worst little boy in Morocco will stop 
playing at the approach of a lunatic and stand respectfully 
aside until the poor creature has gone past. Whatever he 
asks is given to him, and the poor little street Arab never 
dreams of refusing to do anything for him. 


EGYPT AND THE BARBARY STATES 18 7 

All the boys are trained in music and many of them 
make their own instruments. As for the girls! The girls of 
the upper class are taught nothing but to dress and eat and 
smile. When they are twelve or younger they are fattened, 
for strange as it may seem to us, they think this a girl’s 
greatest attraction. Their lovely faces, however, are very 
beautiful. Their bodies are fat and tatooed, but their eyes 
and cheeks and lips are lovely beyond those, perhaps, of the 
girls of any other nation. 


Turkey and Arabia. 


L salam aleikum” (“Peace be with you”), 
“friends!” We are on our way to Con¬ 
stantinople to visit Turkish boys and 
girls, and it is proper that we should 
greet each other in Oriental fashion. 

Let us sail down the Danube and 
over the waters of the Black Sea, or 
through the charming Isles of Greece to 
far-famed Constantinople. As we draw 
near, the gently sloping shores are dotted with beautiful pal¬ 
aces and parks, villas and gardens, ruins and modern palaces, 
kiosks and vineyards; pine forests are at the back, and in 
front numberless graceful boats skim lightly over the water, or 
rest in small picturesque bays and creeks. As we pass one of 
these we see several Turkish children, with tasselled fez or 
cap, sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the boat, and lazily 
watching their negro servant as he angles for fish. 

And now we come in sight of the first of the seven hills 
on which Constantinople, like Rome, is built; we can see 
the immense gilt crescent on the dome of the Mosque of San 
Sophia; we see hundreds of slender minarets or spires stand¬ 
ing out against the blue sky; the domes and cupolas of 
mosques and monuments glisten in the sun’s rays; groups 
of dark cypresses rise here and there in solemn height 

188 








TURKEY AND ARABIA 


189 


We see the city before us in all its beauty as we turn into the 
famous harbor of the Golden Horn, with its forest of masts. 

A few moments more and we are in the Turkish capital, 
only to find that it like many other cities, places, and things, 



YOUNG TURKISH LAD. 

looks best when seen from a distance. Now we are in it, we 
find it far from beautiful. The streets are narrow; the win¬ 
dows that look into them are latticed and barred; great ugly 



































190 


TURKEY AND ARABIA 


dogs lie stretched across the path, and do not dream of mov¬ 
ing either at the kick of the Christian or the “Uschtl” (“Out 
of the way!”) of the Turk. 

There is a great deal of noise, and yet a general air of 
!aziness. The water-bearer and the porter are the busiest; 
but their faces, like the faces of all we meet, are grave and 
have a strange lack of expression. Even the little pasha’s 
child of seven looks as if he had the burden of fifty years on 



LEARNING THE KORAN. 

his young head, and answers the formal greetings made to 
him with a weary air. 

But listen! Ah 1 here at last are the joyous voices of 
children! What a relief! We look round and see a merry 
troop of them coming. A number of boys are escorting one 
of their number, who is going for the first time to school. It 



















































TURKEY AND ARABIA 


191 

is his sixth birthday. The children are all wearing their 
very best clothes to do him honor. The little fellow is mounted 
on a horse or donkey, and as this is a very special occasion, 
his comrades drop their usual seriousness, and sing and 
shout as they lead him to the seat of learning. It is a day 
he has looked forward to for years, though he seems to get 
very little enjoyment from his school life after all. 

The school house is, as a rule, built near a mosque. 
Inside it is very plain and simple. A blackboard hangs 
from the ceiling by means of strings made from the fibres of 
the palm tree, a board for books and slates, one for water- 
jugs, one for the master’s pipe, a mat in the middle of the 
floor, or a divan or a couch at the side of the wall, perhaps 
a globe, and that is all. No school books are to be seen, 
and no desks with ink and paper, slate and pencil. 

The master, dressed in a flowing white robe and green 
turban, sits cross-legged on the mat or divan; the children, 
cross-legged likewise, form a semicircle, and as they learn, 
sway their bodies backwards and forwards, as this move¬ 
ment is thought to assist the memory. All learn aloud and 
at once, so that the noise is heard at some distance. 

The master has a long palm cane in his hand, to enable 
him to give a gentle reminder from time to time, without the 
trouble of rising, to all who are not paying attention. 

The book that is used is the Koran, the holy book of the 
Turks, and the studious boy is expected to copy it out, and 
learn it off by heart. A little writing, less arithmetic, and 
still less geography, if any, complete the course of education. 

“ Never do to-day what you can put off till to-morrow,” 
is a maxim with all Turks; and a Turkish father is, as a rule, 
too lazy himself to take much trouble about his child. “The 
child does not want to learn, what can I do?” he exclaims. 


192 


TURKEY AND ARABIA 


The walls of their houses are painted white, the ceil¬ 
ings red, yellow, or blue; the floors are inlaid; divans and 
couches supplied with any number of cushions, are ranged 
along the wall; a mat or two is laid on the floor; there are 
few mirrors, and no pictures or statues, for these are forbid¬ 
den by the Koran. 

As the boy enters, his mother comes to meet him. 

“ My life ! ” says she, “ how glad I am to see you! Fa¬ 
tima! Jussuf! come! your brother is here. Take care of the 
baby, kuzum ” (my lamb). 

This last warning is necessary, for if the swaddled baby 
does not happen to be lying in its hammock near the open 
window, or sleeping in its curiously-shaped cradle, he looks 
like a bundle lying on the floor. He makes an odd picture. 
His head is encased in a cap of red silk, a tassel of seed 
pearls hang down at one side. Several charms are fastened 
to the tassel. He must feel very uncomfortable, for his 
arms and legs have been straightened out and bound tight 
with bandages. Over all his little body is generally spread 
a thin red veil, especially when strangers are in the house. 
Soon after he was born his father had taken him very ten¬ 
derly in his arms and after a short prayer had whispered his 
name three times and that was all the christening he had 
ever received. 

Fatima and Jussuf come. They are pretty children, 
with long black hair, arranged in plaits and intertwined with 
pearls. In rich families strings of pearls hang also from the 
crown of the fez; but rich families in Turkey are becoming 
scarce, and pearls are rarer than they once were. Many of 
the Turkish children are now dressed in European fashion, 
but Jussuf and Fatima still wear the Turkish dress. 

The boy wears a long coat or caftan, trousers, and fez 


TURKEY AND ARABIA 


193 


or tasseled cap. The girl has very wide drawers, a long 
dress, caught up at the side by the belt, and pretty em¬ 
broidered slippers. 

And now that Fatima and Jussuf are welcoming their 
brother, and all three are admiring the baby, with its wreath 
of artificial flowers, its blue beads, and its other talismans, 
we will take the opportunity of describing some of the daily 
customs of the family. 

All rise early, and after the washing of hands and face, 
repeat a short prayer. Then parents and children retire to 
rest again for a couple of hours, leaving servants and slaves 
to put the house in order and prepare the coffee. After coffee 
they wait again two hours for breakfast. Though it has 
been hours since she got up, the mother is still wearing her 
wadded night-dress. “ It is so comfortable,” she thinks, 
“why should I hurry to dress myself for the day?” 

Before breakfast a queer basin is brought by a slave or 
servant. In the middle is a little stand holding a cake of 
soap, while beneath is a sort of well to hold the water as it 
runs out of the basin. The hands are held out while another 
servant slowly pours water over them. “Wash before eat¬ 
ing and afterwards” is a law of the Koran, and no matter 
how much little boys and girls wish to hurry out to play, 
they must not leave their seats until their hands have been 
bathed. To them it would seem as wicked to neglect this 
rule as to tell a false story or to steal. 

Soon after sunset they have evening prayer and the 
family takes dinner. If the father has friends he dines with 4 
them and his boys in the selamlik , the ladies and daughters 
having their dinner in the haremlik ; but if there are no visit¬ 
ors the family dine together. 

Dinner is served on a kind of table or stool, about a foot 


194 


TURKEY AND ARABIA 



high. Trays are placed on it, with bread, ivory spoons for 
food which cannot be picked up with the fingers, and horn 
spoons for fluids. There are little porce¬ 
lain plates containing caviar, olives, 
cheese and preserves, besides leather 
saucers, on which the dishes are placed 
one after the other, several persons er f 
ing from the one dish. 

The favorite dishes 
are borok , a pie filled with 
cheese, and pilaf made of 
minced and spiced mutton, 
with pistachio nuts. One 
long dinner-napkin passed 
round the tray serves for 
all. The evening is spent 
in singing and listening to^^^ 1 
tales—a very fav¬ 
orite amusement; 
and at io o’clock 
the mattresses and 
coverlets are 
brought out of 
cupboards and 
presses, where 
they are kept dur¬ 
ing the day, and 
are spread on the 
floors of the rooms. 

Five times 
in the day the 
Muezzin , from the balcony of the minaret, calls to praver. 


CALLING TO PRAYER. 
























































































TURKEY AND ARABIA 


i95 


La Illah, ill Allah!” (“There is but one God, one God 
alone!”) he cries. Down on his knees goes every Turk, 
man and child, with his face turned toward the sacred city 
of Mecca, while he repeats a short prayer. 

Besides these five special prayers, the Turkish boy is 
taught to make good use of his rosary. 

This rosary is made of different woods, coral, agate, 
mother-of-pearl, or even of small pearls. Some are com¬ 
posed of pebbles which pilgrims have picked up by the way- 
side. It must have ninety-nine beads, divided into three 
sets ; and children are taught to slip these beads through 
their fingers, saying to each one, “Allah! ” 

From his cradle the Turkish child sees signs of belief 
in magic and hidden evil. A mother lets no one see her 
baby before it is six weeks old, for fear anyone should give 
it the “evil eye.” This, the mother thinks, is sure to befall 
her child if the visitor who praises its good looks or its health 
does not mean what she says, or is not careful to add,“ Marsh 
Allah!” (“May God preserve it!”) 

All children wear talismans or charms to preserve them 
from danger; sickness, they think, is charmed away, and evil 
spirits are pacified by these. 

They have few toys, and those of the simplest de¬ 
scription, such as tops and marbles, with which they do many 
wonderful things. We look in vain for toys that help in 
teaching the child. There are no bricks, no garden tools, no 
toy machines. Games, fencing, swimming, gymnastic exer¬ 
cises are being introduced into the newer schools, but it will 
be a long time before the Turkish father makes his boy learn 
them. Altogether, the child is left to do pretty much what 
he likes. His mother is fond of him, but she has no educa¬ 
tion herself, and cannot see the use of it. His father is fond 


i96 TURKEY AND ARABIA 

of him; but as the child must always stand in his father’s 
presence, and may not speak till he is spoken to, there is 
no trust and no childish chat or laughter. 

Yet, in spite of all this, there is much natural affection 
among the Turks, which may lead to better things as time 
goes on; and it must be said that two virtues are impressed 
upon all children—honesty and temperance. Whether in the 
town or the country, the Turkish boy, however poor, does not 
steal, and the Turkish home, whatever it may fail to have, is 
never a drunken one. 

And if we remember that the industry which they lack 
might not be ours if we lived in their climate, and were 
hemmed in with superstitious customs, we can part good 
friends with the children of Turkey. 

Children of the Arabs. 

Hospitality is the first law of the Arab tribe, and a 
woman must in her husband’s absence entertain the guest 
who asks the shelter of her house, whether he is known to 
her or not, whether friend or foe. They have many pretty 

customs of hospitality. The mis¬ 
tress of the house brings cool oil of 
roses to the stranger, in which to put 
his fingers; a little daughter brings 
a flat saucer of burning musk to per¬ 
fume his hands and cheeks, the mas¬ 
ter of the house offers purple grapes. 
Sometimes a tired traveler, claiming hospitality, will find a 
basin of perfumed snow waiting for him beside the softest 
cushion in the coolest corner of the tent. The snow had 
been gathered from some near mountain-slope and scented 
with rose petals. 



TURKEY AND ARABIA 


197 


They drink sour milk and love to eat ostrich eggs and red 
Birnee dates. Perhaps the two animals which the ordinary 
Arab child is most familiar with are the ostrich and the camel. 
But we must not forget the horse. Arabia is the land from 
which all horses came, in the beginning, and he is loved 
and cared for almost equally with the rest of the family. 

Dates are to the Arabs what bananas are to the most ol 
Africa; what bread, meat and fish are to Europe, and what 
rice is to India and China. An Arab, when traveling 



THE ARAB AND HIS FAITHFUL HORSE. 

in England, was asked how he liked that country. He shook 
his head kindly, but sadly, and said, “ No dates grow there.” 
Ostrich eggs, which the Arabs so love to eat, are very large 
They weigh three pounds at least, and are very good. The 
Arabs are born with wonderful senses of sight, of smell, 
and of hearing. These natural gifts are carefully cultivated 
in all the boys, and among the Bedouins are found keener 
than among any other people 





































































































Russia and Poland. 


Come, oh, spring! oh, lovely spring! 

Come with hope and come with treasure, 

Come with waving flax, and bring 

Corn abundant, dance and pleasure —Russian Song. 

T HUS sings the Russian 
mother as she swings the 
hammock-like cradle in 
which her baby is sleeping, and is 
happy that the long cold winter is 
past, and the beautiful summer is # 
at hand. 

The children are happy, too, and 
run out into the first rains of the 
season, and laugh and dance and 
sing songs in their praise, as 
American children do when the 
first snow-flakes fall. The little Russians*are tired of the 
snow. But after the long, hard frosts of winter they are glad 
to see rain, for they know that it will bring the loveliest, 
though it be the shortest, season of the year. 

In some parts the young girls collect on the banks of the 
rivers when the ice is breaking, and there join hands and 
move backwards and forwards in graceful measure, begging 
the spring not to delay its coming. On the first of May the 
children and their parents wander into the woods for a long 
13 

































RUSSIA AND POLAND 


199 


stroll, and when they return bring with them buds and green 
boughs and young flowers. 

The Russian spring is short—so short, that in times gone 
by it was not classed among the seasons at all. It comes 
with a bound, and has scarcely time to bid the trees awake 
from their winter sleep, and the flowers spring up amid the 
meadow grass or by the banks of the brook, before it is away 
with another bound. But while it lasts it calls back the birds, 
the cuckoo, the lark, and the swallow. On certain days these 
binds appear one after the other, returning, as the legend says, 
from Paradise, and bringing its warmth with them. 

Every season has its songs. When the children have sung 
in praise of 
spring, they wel¬ 
come the sum¬ 
mer, with its hot, 
days, dur¬ 
ing which in 
northern Russia, 

• for a short time 
at least, the sun 

Scarcely sinks RUSSIAN peasants at dinner. 

below the horizon. They sing also in autumn and winter, 
but the songs of autumn and winter are sad; the former griev¬ 
ing for the departure of the birds, the leaves, and the flowers; 
the latter telling of children lost in the snow, hugged to death 
by the shaggy bears, or eaten by the hungry wolves. 

In no country in the world is the difference between the 
rich and poor, the noble and the peasant, so clearly marked 
and so hard to do away with. The parents of many of the 
little boys and girls of the poor were once serfs—a kind 
slave _for they belonged either to the emperor or to some rich 












200 


RUSSIA AND POLAND 


nobleman. They could be bought and sold like animals. 
Though this state of affairs no longer exists, the poor peasant 
seems to grow poorer, and the rich classes richer. Russia needs 
sadly a middle class of sturdy, honest men and women such 
as are the great bulk of our own people. This class is our 
greatest strength, and the lack of it is Russia’s greatest weak 
ness. We shall see at once, therefore, the great difference in 
the lives of the children of the rich and of the poor. 

The children of rich Russians are very much petted, and 
their homes are luxurious. The young nobles are seldom 
sent to school, but have tutors and governesses at home. 

These are natives of France, Germany, and England, 
and as the children hear these languages spoken from their 
earliest years, and have great power of imitation, they find it 
easy to speak foreign languages, which they may know better 
than their own. 

While very few of the peasant children can read or write 
even the Russian language, you will think it very strange 
when I tell you that there are more than forty different kinds 
of speech in this great big country of Russia. Even if you 
learned to speak Russian in one part of it, you might not be 
understood in a different part. 

As long as they are small, the little nobles look very 
pretty, especially the boys, who are dressed in many nice look¬ 
ing costumes. Their coats or dresses of embroidered Persian 
silk or of velvet, of Circassian goat or camel-hair fabrics, are 
bound around the waist with bright colored sashes, in which 
little three-hilted dirks are placed. 

Caps and turbans of all descriptions and colors cover their 
curly little heads, and boots of scarlet, yellow or black, topped 
with red or white, and furnished with small gilt spurs, adorn 
their feet The little girls in the towns are dressed after the 



RUSSIA AND POLAND 


201 


Paris fashions, but at their country seats they also take to 
the pretty national costumes. 

Children do not stay children long in Russia. They 
soon become little gentlemen and ladies; the boys are put 
v lto grand uniforms, and enter the military schools or become 

pages at the 
palaces of the 
Emperor, 
where the prin¬ 
cipal study of 
a great many 
of them con¬ 
sists in bowing 
with grace, 
d r e s sing 
splendidly, 
and spend¬ 
ing- m oney; 
while the girls 
have only to 
help their 
mothers enter¬ 
tain guests, 
and lounge 
about the 
handsome 
draw i n g- 

THE GREATEST BELL IN THE WORLD, IN MOSCOW. WE CAN ALSO 

SEE PECULIAR RUSSIAN SLEIGH AND HARNESS FOR THE HORSE. TOOmS. 

St. Petersburg has been called the “City of Bells,” and 
at no other time is this more noticeable than at Easter morn¬ 
ing. All who can possibly go are in the cathedrals and 
churches. At last a great bell strikes twelve. At the last 































202 


RUSSIA AND POLAND 


stroke, the priest comes through the doors of the sanctuary 
chanting “Christ is risen! Christ is risen!” Then such a 
clamor of bells you have never heard. Big, deep-toned 
bells, little, high tinkling bells, and all the sizes between are 
clanging and sounding together, pealing forth the glad news. 
Cannons are fired off; rockets flash in the sky, the cathedral 
suddenly becomes ablaze with lights and all the people 
move around kissing each other; relations and friends first, 
and then everybody one happens to meet. Old women kiss, 
old men kiss each other, children kiss. The Emperor kisses 
all his household. The kissing lasts all night and during 
the next day, for this is Easter time, and it is their way of 
showing their good will toward all human beings, rich and 
poor alike. 

Jn our days the little Ivan (the common name given to 
little Russians) is born in freedom, and has a good chance of 
becoming something better than his poor father and grand¬ 
father, who had no life of their own to speak of, but were 
kicked and beaten at the will of their master. 

Ivan’s father has not a pretty little hut; it does not 
remind us in the least of an American cottage. 

The father builds it himself, and his only tool is his 
axe. His hut is made of logs of wood; the crevices are 
filled up with weeds and soil; the floor is nothing but earth 
mixed with manure, and great heaps of soil are piled up 
round the walls outside to keep the cold out. There is one 
great stove which heats the only room by day, and serves 
for a bed for the older people at night. The little children’s 
hammocks are slung to the rafters around the stove, and 
there is a kind of rough bench by the wall, which serves as 
bed for the older children, if there are many at home. At 
dinner time the family seat themselves around the table, 
eating out of a common dish placed in the centre. 


RUSSIA AND POLAND 


203 


Ivan's life is generally a very hard one. In the early 
winter he leads the sleigh-horse which his father takes out 
with him to gather wood for the stove ; and sometimes the 
poor little lad has to go alone into the depths of the forest 
for the wood. The girls in the harvest-time go with their 
mothers to the fields, where they work hard, leaving the 
smaller children to amuse themselves by wreathing wild 
flowers into a garland, until it is time to come home. There 
is very little “petting" amongst the Russian peasantry; they 
lead hard lives. Little Ivan is not “coddled." 

Little Ivan’s bath would be a trying thing for an 
American child. First he is steamed till he is half smoth¬ 
ered in a hole under the stove, or in one of the vapor-baths 
so common in all Russian villages. Then he crawls out, 
and his mother half drowns him with pailfuls of hot water. 
Then she pours ice-cold water over him, or sends him out 
to have a roll in the snow; after which he dresses with pride. 

To shorten the long winter evenings, the young village 
girls and children meet in the largest house to spin, and sing 
songs, and tell tales. 

Later on the boys and young men come too, and they 
all have a dance to the sound of the Russian lute. The 
songs they sing are all mournful, but they are full of poetry 
and deep feeling. These songs have a peculiar effect upon 
the people. Music for them has a strong charm. The na¬ 
tive songs and ballads have a quaint and curious ring of 
mystery and sadness. Fancy is blended with fact, and with 
eve^-day doings in a way that affects the feelings and is 
warmly felt by every listener. 


China. 


HEN we come to China we find a people 
full of foolish fancies about ghosts and 
demons and witches and the like, and 
much care is taken to save the little ones 
from these evil beings. When little babies 
are only three days old they are solemnly 
washed, and often have their wrists tied up with a red cotton 
cord, and to this a charm is attached so as to keep off evil 
spirits from the baby. The head is shaved when the child is 
a month old, the hairdresser then having to wear red, this 
being considered a “lucky” color. Presents of cakes and 
other things are sent to the baby, and when it is four months 
old there is a ceremony to thank “Mother,” the patron god¬ 
dess of Chinese children, for sending the little child, and to 
pray to her to make it good, prosperous and happy. 

Ming or some other child name, is given to little boy 
babies, in addition to their surnames; but although they must 
always call themselves by this name, after they are twenty 
they must never be addressed by it, but by the tsa or manly 
name, which is bestowed upon them at that age. Boys at 
school also have some name by which their schoolmasters 
and schoolfellows call them. This is much like boys at our 

schools, who are apt to have their nicknames.- 

204 






CHINA 


205 


Instead of having- a baby name given to them, girls are 
called No. 1, No. 2, and so on, as if they were not worth a 
name of their own. 

Boys are thought much more of in China than their sis¬ 
ters, because they can earn more money when they grow up, 
and help to support their parents. They can also worship 
their ancestors, it is thought, with more effect. 

A dreadful practice exists in China of putting little girls 
to death when there are too many in a family. The fathet 



CHINESE CHILDREN. 


does this terrible thing, but the Chinese do not look upon it 
as wrong, for they care little for their girls. Where an 
American parent would say he had two children, a girl and 
a boy, a Chinese would say, “only one child,” as if the girl 
was not worth speaking of. 

When a baby is four months old he learns, for the 
first time, to sit in a chair, and then his mother’s mother 
has to send him, besides a great many other presents, some 



















no 6 


CHINA 



soft sugar-candy, which is made to stick to the chair upon 
which the baby is seated. 

The first birthday is a great day of 
rejoicing, when once more a thank-offering 
is presented to “ Mother,” and the baby 
is put upon the table in front of a num¬ 
ber of things, such as ink, books, gold 
or tools, and the one he first touches is 
to decide what is to be his future em¬ 
ployment. As soon as he is old enough 
to do so, the little child is taught to worship his patron 
goddess, and other gods and goddesses, of which the 
Chinese have a great many. 

Very much is thought of education in China, and if a 
poor boy shows himself a good scholar and passes a hard 
examination he can fill as high a position as though he were 
a boy of rank. All boys, especially in the south of China, 

are expected to go 
to school, but be¬ 
sides the schools 
of the Missionaries 
or Christian 
teachers, there are 
not very many for 
girls. 

A tutor has 


A 

25 / not only to teach 
^ f boys how to read 
and to write, but 
politeness forms 
the basis of 



CHINESE SCHOOL. 














































CHINA 


207 


Chinese education, and the many ceremonies used in public 
and private life have to be learnt at school. 

Like the boys of Japan, the young- Chinese learn their 
lessons out loud, and sometimes make a great clatter in the 
schoolroom while doing so. But boys may not talk together 1 
in school, and to prevent their doing this the desks are set at 
a distance apart. 

When a lesson is known the boy takes his book to the 
master, bows, turns his back, and repeats it. This is called 
pey-chou , or “backing the book,” and is to prevent the boy 



BEATING LINEN. 


from reading- the lesson, which the large characters would 
make it very easy for him to do. 

The way that the Chinese are taught is on a very dif¬ 
ferent system from our own. They learn by heart first, and 
then have explained to them the meaning of what they have 
learnt. Their first lesson is on filial piety, and throughout 
life the Chinese boy, and girl, and man, and woman are 
noted for their love for their parents. This we find in all 
parts of China and Japan, and a lovely virtue it is, one 
which ought to be taught more in our own country. 






208 


CHINA 


They study a sacred book which tells them about the 
nature of man, modes of education, social duties, and many 
other things. Next come the four classical, and then the five 
sacred books; so when Chinese boys go to school they have 
plenty to study of a certain kind. They become so proud of 
their learning that they do not think they have anything left 
to learn from other nations. 

At the mission school for girls the children are taught 
to read and write in the morning, and in the afternoon to 
make their own clothes. A Chinese girl’s dress consists of 
a long loose jacket, and a pair of loose trousers, both made 
of bright colors. They also make their own shoes, which 
are beautifully embroidered. All little girls wear shoes, 
which they have to remove before they go into a room. Most 
of the better class of girls have very small feet, made so by 
being cruelly bandaged when of tender age. 

The Chinese have two principal meals in the day, the one 
in the morning, the other in the evening, and a few cakes 
and some tea between morning and afternoon school, a pot 
of the tea being kept in the mission schools. They eat with 
“chopsticks.” 

Battledore and shuttlecock is a very common game 
amongst Chinese boys and girls, which they play sometimes 
in circles, often using their elbows and feet instead of battle¬ 
dores. Unlike their little neighbors in Japan, we do not 
think that Chinese girls care for dolls; but they are fond of 
playing at a round game similar to our “ mulberry-bush.” 

They also skip; the boys play at horses, and fly the 
wonderful kites for which the Chinese are famous, and which 
their fathers and grandfathers often fly with them. These 
kites are of curious shapes, fashioned like birds of various 
kinds. A great many peep-shows are about the streets, 
which delight the children very much. 


CHINA 


209 



Their homes have generally no second floor. The 
Chinese in their superstition think it * unlucky ” to live high 
above ground; but some houses in the cities have two stories. 

The better dwellings all 
have stone walls around 
them. In their rooms 
are very pretty cabinets 
and screens, and also 
many ornaments and 
fans. Silk or satin cur¬ 
tains hang on the walls, 
on which good advice is 
written, and pretty lan¬ 
terns are hung from the 
ceilings. Many houses 
have beautiful gardens 
and large verandahs; 
Chinese mother and child. even the poor people love 

and carefully tend, their good-sized pieces of ground. 

The Chinese, as you may know, do most things in the 
opposite way to which we do them. 

Their mourning is white, not black, as 
with us; they turn their relatives out of 
doors to die; no one will have in the 
house a person who is ill if he can help 
it. A Chinese will shake his own hand 
instead of his guest’s; he will put his 
hat on to salute you as we take the hat 
off! They write up and down the page; 
we write across it. Their chamber 

< i 




/ 


// 


maids” are all men, so are their washer CAUGHT IN A SH0W£ R- 
women,” as an Irishman may say; and their river boat 
“men” are women and girls. 







210 


CHINA 


These boat-girls are pretty. They wear no shoes or 
stockings, but their feet and ankles are beautiful. They 
learn to manage boats when babies, and in these whole fam¬ 
ilies live and die. “The water-baby,” says an observer, 
“opens its eyes upon the sampen (boat) passes its watery 
youth there, is damply married there, and not unfrequently 
goes to a watery grave. For all that water does not appear 
to hurt the children, for they are on it and in it continually, 
and are not often drowned.” 

These people seldom go on land. They live in boats 
on the Canton river and other waters, sometimes at anchor 
or moored in the same spot all their lives. Their shops are 
floating like themselves, and the boats may have been dwelt 
in by generations. The boat-girls carry passengers and 
merchandise, and are lovely, bright girls, with short hair in 
front on the forehead, though it is knotted at the back under 
the wide hat. In Canton alone nearly a million of people 
live on the water. 

In the matter of obedience, of which we have already 
spoken, the Chinese child is very strictly brought up. While 
he lives, a son must obey his parents; he does not become 
“his own master,” but is subject to his parents in all things. 
The girl, after marriage, is ruled by her husband and his 
parents. After her husband’s death she must obey her son 
when he arrives at mature age. So we see that the Chinese 
children have not nearly so much liberty as Western boys 
and girls have. 

You have, many of you, heard the old song beginning— 

“ Ching-a-ring-a-ring-ting, Feast of Lanterns, 

What a lot of chopsticks, prongs, and gongs.” 

Well, at the eve of the New Year, which is on the 8th of 
February of our reckoning, the Chinese hang out beautifully- 


CHINA 


211 

decorated lanterns from their doors and balconies ; and when 
midnight comes, fireworks are let off, drums are beaten, 
music of the usual “ching-ching" style is played, so as to 
drive away evil spirits. For the same purpose the houses 
on these occasions are decorated with red cloth, and chil¬ 
dren’s hair is tied up with red silk, so as to prevent any evil 
coming upon the houses or the children who live in them. 
At the end of the year all accounts are settled, new clothes 
are purchased, presents are given—a gift of a pair of shoes 
for the New Year is a favorite and welcome present—and 
the Chinese wish each other ‘‘A Happy New Year" in crab¬ 
bed characters, like the wanderings of a fly which has been 
dipped in the ink-bottle and put on the paper to dry! 


India. 


npHE little ones of India do not lead 
-*• such merry lives as those born in 
other countries. They seem to take life 
from their earliest years as a very solemn 
business. There is a look of old age on 
their little faces which is not natural, and 
though, of course, they have their child¬ 
ish plays, somehow even their amuse¬ 
ments partake of the gravity which seems 
part and parcel of their nature. They 
take their pleasures sadly, and bursts of 
joyous merriment are rarely, if ever, heard 
amongst them in their play-hours. They 
are what we should call “old-fashioned.” 
The English in India seem to know 
very little about the native children who swarm about their 
houses and grounds. They, of course, see their servants’ 
children running about in scanty garments, if they have any 
on at all, and running off, in an excess of shyness, on their 
approach to a place of shelter, and that is very often all 
they know about them. Pretty little things many of them 
are, either with shocks of black hair, or else with shaved 
heads, chubby faces, large, black, bead-like eyes, and beauti¬ 
fully white teeth. But if their faces are pretty, their forms 

212 
























INDIA 


21 3 


are not graceful, for Indian children are either too fat or too 


thin, and they go about in the fruit season, as a well-known 



writer has said, like “pots of green preserves, ‘chow chow' 
undeveloped,’’ and their round little bodies give them an al¬ 
most laughable appearance, taking away from their good 
looks. 

We are writing now of quite poor native children. * 
They have one great virtue which children of other countries 
would do well to imitate—they are very polite, and when 

you pass 
them, they 
rise and 
m ake a 
graceful 
bow before 
they scamp¬ 
er away into 
hiding. If 
you give 
them a kind 
word, a few 
sweets, or, 
what they 

A HOUSE IN INDIA. , 

love more 

then aught else, a few small coppers, they get over their 
shyness, and you have a chance to observe their ways a little. 

It may be as well to give an account of Indian children 
from their earliest years. 

Babies in India are not troubled with much clothing; 
they are not swathed up, for example, as are the German 
babies, nor even as are our own infants. They go through a 




















214 


INDIA 


curious process which we should think very disagreeable; their 
little bodies are rubbed all over with oil, and lamp-black is 
put on their eyelids and below their eyes, there being an 
idea among the women that this is good for their eyesight. 

The children have generally a quantity of black hair, 
but often, especially if it be very hot weather, this is all 



LITTLE HINDOOS PLAYING FOOTBALL 

shaved off so as to keep the head cool. In the case of boys, 

however, one lock is always left on the top of the head, and the 

hair is kept together by wax. With Hindoos this sacred lock, 

as it is called, is never cut off. Some parents make a vow 

not to cut a boy’s hair until he is twelve years old, and boys 

are at times taken to be girls, from their long plaits of hair. 

When the lock is finally shaved off, a great feast is given 
14 






































































































































































INDIA 


presents are made to the Brahmins, or priests, the child is 
dressed in new clothes, and a variety of ceremonies are gone 
through. 

Very soon after the birth of a child of well-to-do par¬ 
ents, the astrologer is sent for to cast the infant’s nativity. 
He comes with his different instruments and asks a great 
• many questions. He then consults the stars and pretends 
to tell from them the events of the child’s future life. The 
parents treasure up this record, and look at it as often as 
good or evil happens to their child. Poor people who can¬ 
not afford to go to the expense of an astrologer’s visit, con¬ 
tent themselves with merely entering down the day on 
which their child was born. 

The giving of a name to the baby is another very cere¬ 
monious affair, and generally takes place when the child is 
about twelve days old. The names of gods or goddesses 
are generally chosen, or perhaps that of a flower, but never 
the name of either father or mother. The choice is usually 
the mother’s business, but the father sometimes wishes for 
another name than that chosen by the mother, and then the 
matter is decided by a lamp being placed over each name, 
and the one over which it burns the more steadily and 
brightly is chosen. 

Little Indian girls are covered with jewels very soon 
after they are born. Quite tiny babies wear silver nose-rings, 
ear-rings, bangles, anklets, and necklaces, seeming, poor 
little mites, quite weighed down with them. 

Mohammedan children generally wear charms tied 
round their necks and arms, which consist of verses from 
their sacred book—the Koran—written on small slips of 
paper, and then put into small lockets of silver. A Hindoo 
child wears other charms, perhaps a tiger’s claw or tooth; 


2 I 6 


INDIA 


sometimes acorns, shells or coins. The mothers do not like 
to tell what they have put round their children’s necks. 

As they get a little out of babyhood the children 
have their pets, like our own young folks. Pigeons, parrots 
and starlings are favorite birds in Indian houses; sometimes 
partridges and tame squirrels may be seen; and dogs are also 
made pets of, both in Mohammedan and Hindoo families. 

Their toys are usually made of baked mud or wood, 
and gaily colored. They are mostly the figures of animals. 
The shapes of the animals are very curious—horses of queer 
form, well-striped tigers, elephants, and so on. An English 
doll to a native child gives the greatest delight. They 
especially like those with blue eyes and flaxen hair as the 
greatest contrast to their own brown little faces, often made 
still more dingy by the curious custom some mothers have 
of rubbing a smudge of black on their children’s foreheads 
to prevent—as they think—wicked spirits taking a fancy 
to them on account of their good looks. 

At a certain season the little girls throw their dolls into 
the water, following the fashion of their parents, who put 
their dead into the Ganges, which is considered a sacred 
river. The little dolls are made only of clay, painted and 
dressed, but they are, for all that, precious to the children. 

On the Dassivah Festival, the girls dress up in their 
best and brightest costumes, and go down to the nearest 
water-tank or stream, and solemnly cast their dolls into it. 
The festival lasts nine days, and on the tenth day the boys 
also destroy their toys. They hollow out gourds, too, and 
put lighted candles in them, as farmers’ boys here do with 
turnips. After the girls have thrown away their dolls they 
get no others for three months; then at the next Dassivah 
Feast they do the same as before. 


INDIA 


217 

Kite-flying and swinging are at certain seasons of the 
year their favorite amusements; they are also fond of a 
game of foot-ball, and are experts at “cup and ball.” The 
annual fair heid to celebrate the return of Rama (one of the 
old gods) is the great day for native children. Their par¬ 
ents, however poor, strive to scrape a few coins together to 
give their little ones a treat then, and take them, decked out 
in as much finery as possible, to share in the fun; to swing 
in the gaily-painted red and gold cars; to have a turn in the 
merry-go-rounds, drawn, perhaps, by an elephant or a 
camel; and last, but by no means least, to buy some of the 
baked-earth toys and curious-looking sweetmeats. 

The older children play at various games ; like all chil¬ 
dren, they are fond of pretending. They pretend to cook, or 
write in the dust, or read. They also make a species of 
“mud pie.” We wonder if anywhere in the known world “mud 
pie-making” is not a game with children. But the “mud 
pies” Indian children make take the form of graves, decor¬ 
ated with flowers and leaves, after the fashion in which their 
elders ornament the tombs of their relatives. A solemn sort 
of amusement this, but keeping quite in with their natures, 
and most gravely conducted. 

But there are other and rougher games—the game of 
ball and the mimic battle with short swords, which latter is 
played as warily as the German fort-taking game of which you 
have already read. Indian children are generally very clever in 
arithmetic, saying their tables up to a very large number; 
but they cannot bear to be severely tested in them. Ordinary 
slates are now used for sums; formerly palm-leaves and 
green plaintain-leaves were given to the scholars to write on, 
and a reed or iron stylus to write with. 

Hindoo schools are of two kinds, called tols and patha - 


218 


INDIA 


salas. The latter are primary schools for reading-, writing 5 , 
and arithmetic—and are conducted by a villag-e schoolmaster. 
The former are of a higher class, in which the course of 
grammar occupies from seven to twelve years, law about ten, 
and logic from thirteen to twenty-two years. The two kinds 
of schools are in no way connected, pupils not passing- from 
the inferior to the superior, as one mig-ht naturally suppose 
would be the case. Very few, indeed, take these hig-her 
courses of study. 

Perhaps you will like to know what Indian children 
have for food and when they take their meals. The hours 
vary according to the time of the year, and the time that the 
schools are open. If from six to ten, the children get a piece 
of cold bread before going out in the morning to school, and 
return, if Hindoos, to a meal of dalp and chapatis , the latter 
being thin cakes made of flour and water, with sometimes a 
little spice. If Mohammedans, they are given meat. Then 
they get another meal at about six in the evening. 
Between whiles they eat a good deal of fruit, and are quite 
as fond of sweets as any child. In a Hindoo house, the 
father and sons have their meals alone, waited on by the 
mother and sisters, who afterwards take their food anyhow, 
partaking of whatever scraps are left, as they are looked on 
as quite inferior to the male members of the family. In this 
the Indians are like the Chinese. 

Some people who know little of India have an idea that 
the natives are by no means a clean race. This is quite a 
mistake, for they wash much more frequently, as a rule, than 
do people of other nations. Both Mohammedans and Hin¬ 
doos wash not only before and after .meals, which of course 
is necessary, as they eat with their fingers, but also at vari- 


*A sort of pea, called in England pigeon-pea ; it is boiled and eaten with rice: 


INDIA 


219 


ous other times in the day. The old natives seem to be al¬ 
ways washing at every leisure moment, when they are not 
indulging in the peaceful charms of the “hubble-bubble" 
or pipe. 

You may have heard that in India early marriages are 
the custom. Among the Sudras, boys ai*e frequently married 
at the age of five or six; but the Brahmins often delay the 
marriage until the boy is fifteen or sixteen; but then the wife 
must not exceed the age of four or five. All married women 
in India wear on their necks a small ornament of gold which 
is a sign that they are married; this ornament is removed 
with great formality when they become widows. The nose 
ring is also put in on marriage, and this is likewise removed 
if the child-wife becomes a widow. 

These infant marriages are the source of much misery in 
India and child-widows lead very unhappy lives. Very often 
they have never even seen the faces of the husbands they 
are compelled to mourn for; but they have to give up all, 
even the most innocent pleasures, eat the coarsest food, 
wear the coarsest cloth for clothes and be deprived of all 
their ornaments, as no widows are allowed to wear 
any jewels. 

It is to be hoped that in time the English government 
will do away with this miserable custom. Many bad prac¬ 
tices have been put down, and we hope that infant marriages 
may also be, for they cause a great deal of grief and misery 
both to girls and boys. The time may soon come when all 
these old foolish customs are done away with and when we 
will see the little ones of India become like the happy, merry 
children of other countries. 


Japan and Korea. 








HE land of the Rising Sun,” is the 
pretty name which the people of 
Japan give their country, and it 
is a very beautiful one. It is all 
made up of islands; four large, and 
more than 3,ooo small ones in the 
great Pacific Ocean, not far from 
the coast of Asia. 

In this island country the boys and girls know how to 
make themselves happy at all seasons of the year, and this is 
no wonder, for, as we shall see presently, they have no end 
of toys, and amusements; and one thing that would, no doubt, 
make them happier than anything else is that they are most 
loving and obedient children to very fond parents, who 
never punish them. Never being punished would not, how¬ 
ever, make them so happy if it were not that they really do 
not seem to need punishment, for a word softly spoken to 
Japanese boys and girls seems quite enough to make them 
behave well. 

The people of Japan are very eager to gain knowledge; 
and to see the little black eyes of the brown-faced babies roam¬ 
ing about as if seeking something, at two or three weeks of 
age, one would fancy that they had inherited a thirst for 
knowledge. 



2 20 







JAPAN AND KOREA 


2 ' 2 \ 


We wonder whether they admire their strange-Iooking 
mothers when they are first old enough to notice them, with 
their brown faces powdered white, and their teeth painted 
black. It used to be the custom for Japanese girls to do all 
this to their faces when they married; but I believe the cus¬ 
tom of painting their teeth black is now passing away. 

Mothers carry their babies slung in front of them, and 
when they are tired the fathers may be seen carrying them 
in the same way. The children next mount their parents 
pick-a-back fashion, 
and not only do fathers 
and mothers thus give 
them repeated rides, 
but elder brothers and 
sisters do the same for 
the younger ones, 
when the bearer is very 
often but little taller 
than the one to be seen 
perched upon his or 
her back. 

The Japanese are a Japanese rickshaw. 

very clean people, and think so much of the bath, that, al¬ 
though there are bath-rooms in all the large houses, there are 
many public bathing-houses known by a dark banner hang¬ 
ing over their doorway, and these are generally crowded. 
But besides the baths, Japanese mothers would tell you that 
they teach their little children to be hardy by ducking them 
in cold rivers, and plunging them into snow. 

Education is a great thing in Japan, and schools may be 
seen on all sides. Both boys and girls of all ranks and 
classes are expected, not only to learn to read and write, but 







































222 


JAPAN AND KOREA 



to know something about the written history of their own 
country. They are very proud of their country, and perhaps 
justly, as they think it to be the most ancient sovereignty in 

the world; one family of emperors 
having ruled for over fourteen hun¬ 
dred years. Most Japanese children 
are therefore sent to school, and 
may be seen on their way thither 
learning their lessons out loud. 

The Japanese are a reading peo¬ 
ple, and a great many book-stalls 
are to be found in their streets, and 
on these may be found many picture- 
books for the little ones. In the 
same way that children learn their les¬ 
sons out loud, their elders have a habit of reading aloud to them¬ 
selves. Although Japanese children have to learn to write 
their letters in columns, from the top to the bottom of the 
page, beginning at the right-hand side, as the Chinese do, 
the characters are not at all the same, and the two languages 
also differ very much, the Chinese words being all 
short, and many of the Japanese ones very long. 

Children of “The Land of the Rising Sun” ^ 
have their heads shaved, with the exception 
of four little tufts, one before, one behind, 
and one on either side. They wear bright 
and many-colored clothes, their loose 
jackets having very long sleeves almost to 
the ground, in each of which there 
is a pocket. They are odd little mites, 
sometimes going about in clogs, 
with their little shorn bare heads. - 





JAPAN AND KOREA 


223 


Some wear stocking's, but all do not. Those worn are made 
like a baby’s glove, with one division for the big toe, round 
which the sandals of the wooden clog are fastened. The 
children like to have these clogs too large for them, because 
hey are then so much easier to throw off, and they have 
always to be removed before the children go into a room. 
Sometimes they take them off to use as balls. 

Besides the pockets in the long 
sleeves many boys wear a pouch, in 
which they carry a purse and materials 
"for writing. Their money, which has a 
hole in it, is often strung together in the 
purse for fear it should be lost. A man 
always wears, hanging to a string round 
his waist, a small portable inkstand, a 
brush to write with, and a good deal 
of paper. 

Japanese children are taught to keep 

strictly all festivals in honor of their gods, and on a festi- 
val morning’ boys will go off very early to the barber to be 
shaved (the time in Japan for getting up is sunrise, and the 
time for going to bed sunset). Then they will put_on 

their best clothes, paint and powder their 
faces, and start away for a temple. Outside 
they may find some bronze dogs. If they do 
they will first touch one of these all over, 
and then themselves in the same way, which 
n the same as praying to be well and strong. 

When they cannot go into a temple they ring 
a bell to call the god’s attention to what 
they have to say, drop some money, which they have 
carried with them, into a box, and ask the god to bless them. 







224 


JAPAN AND KOREA 


Coming along they have most likely bought two rice cakes, 
which they give to a boy belonging to the temple, in exchange 
for which he gives them one that has been blessed. We 
would think he had the better of the bargain. 

The dog is quite venerated in Japan, and nobody is 
allowed to kill one. On their way to school children meet a 
great many dogs. Those that have owners they will know 
by their wearing a wooden label ; the others look in very 
good condition, and as though they knew how to take care of 
themselves. Should there be time,* a child will stop and 
give one of these dogs a combing, but some of them look too 
fierce to be meddled with. The stray ones all go off to some 
stable or yard at night, and in the same way that we have 
policemen to protect us, the dogs of Japan have guardians to 
take care of them, and there are hospitals for those that are ill. 

So much is done in Japan to make children happy that 
it would be impossible to describe it all; wherever they walk 
they find stalls in the streets, on which toys or cakes and 
sweets are sold, but perhaps what would interest American 
girls more than anything else would be to hear about a feast 
kept on the 3d of March, called “The Feast of Dolls.” 
The name would lead us to believe that it is the grandest 
and happiest day in the whole year for girls, and so it is. 

Their dolls are on this day all displayed, and many a 
new one has been bought from the shops for the occasion. 
The dolls are mostly made of wood, or enameled clay, and are 
very prettily dressed ; and as girls play with their dolls until 
they are grown up, and then save them for their children, 
they collect until a great many are owned by one family. 
No doubt many little fans are hung upon the dolls, for we 
know that Japan, like China, is noted for its fans and pretty 
nicknacks. 


JAPAN AND KOREA 


225 


There is on the 5th of May also a special festival for 
boys called “The Feast of Flags.” The toys then consist 
of effigies of great generals and heroes, and all kinds of 
weapons that are used in war, with many flags. In the 
same way that dolls were bought, two months before, for the 
girls, these toys are now bought for their brothers. 

Japanese children are very good mimics, and are fond 
of acting. The boys also like athletic sports (of which we 
give illustrations), especially wrestling, and they play foot¬ 
ball, fly kites (beautiful ones made of tough paper, and 
representing a variety of things, even children). Then they 

walk very much on 
stilts. Girls are very 
fond of battledore and 
shuttlecock, the 
shu 111 e c o c k being 
sometimes in the shape 
and form of a bird, 
and the battledore 
consisting of a flat 
piece of wood without 
any vellum. And 
blowing bubbles is 

a very favorite amusement of Japanese children. 

Japanese toys are too numerous to describe, but so 
many of them have now come to America that they are becom¬ 
ing familiar to us all. 

The Japanese are very clever acrobats and conjurors; 
they can do all kinds of marvelous tricks with paper butter¬ 
flies and fans. By moving the fan gently the conjuror will 
make the “butterfly” move and dip and fly quite like a live 
one. They also perform wonderful tumbling feats, and by 





















226 


JAPAN AND KOREA 


putting on curious head pieces with masks they can appar¬ 
ently twist and turn their bodies in a hideous and fantastic 
way. 

One thing we have forgotten to mention with regard to 
a stall in the streets which delights little purchasers very 
much. A man sells all the materials necessary to make a 
cake, and then allows his little customers to manufacture it 
themselves, and to cook it on his stove. 

So you see that both within and without of doors people 
do all they can to make the children happy, and how glad 
they must be in return to know that they are doing all in 
their power to give pleasure, by trying to be very loving, 
truthful and obedient! Besides loving and honoring their 
parents, Japanese children are also taught to honor all their 
ancestors. 


t 


MALAY NATIVES FISHING WITH BOWS AND ARROWS 

Tho n,Vt„rp shows the lone pole, fastened lengthwise several feet from the boat, which keeps it from upsetting. In the clear water, the Malays see the fish 
1 P ' and rarely miss them with their arrows. 















A MARKET BOY IN MANILA 

This kind of enterprising huckster marches up and down the streets and alleys of Philippine cities, crying out 
what he has for sale, stopping at the doorways to which he may he called. 


















The Philippines and Hawaii. 


S 


AILING south from Japan we come in time to a great 
group of islands belonging to the United States, and go 

ashore in the large city of Manila. But 
let us getaway from the cities and towns. 
There are too many foreigners in Manila 
and we cannot see the real home life of 
the natives here. 

The Philippines, as you know, are 
composed of many islands, and upon 
them live many tribes of people, all be¬ 
longing to the brown race, which is one 
of the great divisions of the human fam¬ 
ily, but very different in their ways of 
life. Some who live up in the mountains 
are so savage and wild that we cannot 
visit them in safety, but we shall find 
much of interest in the people of the 
island of Luzon and others near it. 

Early one morning we see a native 
standing on the roof of his bamboo hut 
waving a bol-o, or kind of sword, in his 
hand, and shouting: “Go away,spirits; 



PfiTLlPPltfSS 


if you come near here you will get your throats cut. Don t 
try to get inside to hurt my little one ” We wonder what 

























228 


THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 


this is all about until we follow him into the hut and see him 

tip-toe gently into a darkened room and kneel over a funny 

little bundle of babyhood. 

* 

Whenever the Filipinos hear the wind shrieking through 
the woods they think it is the cry of the soul of some poor 
child, stolen by these wicked spirits before the baby is bap¬ 
tized. We notice that the happy father is rubbing his nose 
and cheek all over his tiny son. But this is his way of kiss¬ 
ing, and we do not doubt that it shows as much love as our 
own method. The baby’s nose is so flat that you could hardly 
tell there was any, except for the broad nostrils. His big 
black eyes roam over the room continually, curious to see 
what kind of world it is that he has entered. 

Olo, as the little brown baby is called, finds himself lying 
on a mat of woven palm leaves, which are very sweet and 
fresh. The floor is made of split bamboo, flattened, and fas¬ 
tened close together, as are also the walls of his tiny room. 
There is something in Olo’s home that should make him feel 
very lucky indeed to have been born in this place, for when¬ 
ever he turns his eyes toward the window he finds the light 
very soft and restful. The inner shells of a certain kind of 
oyster have been fitted into the window, and the sunshine, 
which is so brilliant in his land, shines through them with all 
the -colors of the rainbow, for the shell breaks up the light 
into its many colors. 

The Filipino child is given his first party very much 
sooner than you were, since, when he is scarcely six days old, 
all the neighbors and relatives from a great distance come to 
call on him.. They come quietly to the door-way and listen 
for a long time to find out if he and his mother are awake, 
for they would not disturb them for anything. They believe 
that when a person is asleep his soul goes wandering around 


THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 


229 


the woods, and that if he were to be awakened suddenly his 
soul might not have time to get back again where it belonged. 

So the Tagals, for that is the name of these people, do 
not hurry into the room. In fact, they rarely hurry at all, and 
do not believe in doing anything suddenly. They could not 
appreciate our “surprise parties.” But they do know howto 
make very fine speeches, and make the mother very proud as 
they praise her tiny little boy. 



EATING POl 


We wonder at the number in the family who live here, 
including grandparents, cousins and a helpless old man, but 
as we are aslced so cordially to enter and become one of them, 
we see for the first time that they are a very kind-hearted peo¬ 
ple. They never turn anyone from their homes, as they feel 

that a visitor brings good luck. 

Soon the time has come for a great feast, and we hardly 
know whether or not to eat what is put before us, for it looks 
so peculiar.—Nuts, cut in slices and wrapped in leaves, roasted 













230 


THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 


ouffalo and wild boar’s meat, a salad, made from the young 
green tops of the bamboo, stewed iguana, papaws, tamarind 
sauce, guavus and bananas, and plenty of cocoa wine and 
tuba. What is this placed before us with much ceremony 
as a great dainty? Birds’ nests! The Chinese and the 
Filipinos are very fond of the nests which a certain kind of 
bird builds high up on the sides of steep cliffs, jutting out 
over the ocean. The twigs are fastened together with a kind 
of gum, which to them is delicious. It is very dangerous 
hunting for these on the steep sides of the rocks, for a single 
misstep, or the rolling of a stone underneath the foot, will 
hurl the risky hunter down upon the sharp rocks below. 
There are many Chinese in the Philippines, and they get 
along very well with our cousins here. 

We say ‘‘Good-bye” to our entertainers, and, after rid¬ 
ing a little further, we think for a moment that we have 
traveled in a circle and come back again, for here is a hut 
exactly like the one we left. But we notice that this cannot 
be so, as a stream runs past and a strange little boy ten 
years old is riding around on a buffalo. In a moment three 
of his brothers and sisters come running out and climb up 
on the broad back of the carabou, as the Philippine water- 
buffalo is called. This animal is their greatest friend, and 
most loved by them after their own father and mother. He 
is gentle and kind, and does everything our little friends 
wish him to do. The rein is fastened to a piece of split 
rattan drawn through his nose, and it seems as though 
every motion of the children on his back is understood. 

He cannot work in the way our horses do, for after a 
few hours’ work he must stop to rest. But more than any¬ 
thing else he loves to take a bath. Sometimes the children 

ride on his back when he goes into the river, and they are 

IS 


THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 231 

not frightened if he holds his head under water for even two 
minutes at a time while searching for food. Wherever he 
bathes, several white herons follow him as he ploughs about 
in the mud, for his heavy feet stir up worms and insects 
which give these birds their breakfast. This carabou has 
lived in the family since he was caught wild when a little 
baby, and is the friend and pet of the entire household. 

You would be surprised if you could see the little 
babies, having just learned to walk, swimming in the water 
with the greatest ease. Every Filipino child swims like a 
fish, and feels nearly as much at home in the water as if he 
were on land. They do not have to bother about dressing 
and undressing, for in the country the children rarely wear 
any clothes at all. The weather is so warm that there is no 
need for clothes throughout the year, and there is scarcely 
any change of temperature during the four seasons. 

The little boys and girls learn when very young to be 
obedient to their parents and respectful to those who are 
older. They always treat strangers with the greatest polite¬ 
ness. This is the case all through the East, in China, 
Japan and India, and is a very good way to bring up 
children. 

We like to see how early in life our little cousins help 
their father. When not old enough to work in the field, 
they watch for the monkeys who often destroy the rice crops, 
and chase them away when they come near. Sometimes 
they catch a very young one and tame it. 

Throughout the country we find enormous cocoanut 
trees. To get the sap from these, from which they make 
tuba, a drink which is greatly liked, only the young boys 
can be of service; their fathers are too heavy. It is dan¬ 
gerous work, but the boys seem to love danger, and we are 


232 THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 

glad to be able to watch Tonda, the oldest of this family, as 
he climbs the tree, 

When he first starts upward he cuts notches for his feet, 
and, when he has reached the top, fully sixty feet above the 
ground, he has still found no branches to help him in climb¬ 
ing—for the cocoanut tree does not have any. Tonda 
returns for bamboo pitchers, and with long, graceful steps 
climbs quickly to the top. From a deep cut in the trunk, 
directly under the great tuft of leaves at the top, the sap 
flows out into these queer-looking pitchers. But how does 
he get to the next tree? You say, of course, climb up in the 
same way, but Tondo likes to save himself that trouble. 
His father hands him up two long bamboo rods. He takes 
the first and stretches it across to the next tree. Over this 
he must walk. The second bamboo stick is stretched across 
for a hand-rail with which to steady himself. It would be a 
terrible fall should his slight bridge break in the middle, but 
he does not seem to mind the danger. We are glad, how¬ 
ever, when he has safely crossed over to the next tree. 

Another way in which Tonda can be very useful to his 
father is in gathering hemp and separating the fibers from 
the pulp, to be thrashed out and dried before they are packed. 
You have all heard of Manila Hemp; it is sent all over 
the world. It is our brown cousins, away off here in the 
Philippines, whom we have to thank for the delicate dress 
goods, carpets, hammocks and ropes which we use so much. 

Some cocoanut trees are saved for the nuts which grow 
upon them three times a year; but it is easy work for Tonda 
to reach up, with a knife fastened to the end of a long pole, 
and cut them off. How could the Filipinos get along with¬ 
out this tree? It is useful in so many ways, that we cannot 
even mention them all. Oil for lamps is obtained from the 


THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 233 

nut; parts of it are used for medicine; canoes and furniture 
are made from its trunks. Ropes, brooms, brushes, bedding-, 
baskets and mats are all made from parts of this wonderful 
tree, and the fresh cocoanut milk is the favorite drink in 
these islands. 

We are surprised one day to see everyone running 
around in the wildest manner, collecting cocoanuts, tin pans, 
red flags, bamboo clappers, and anything that can make a 
noise. We find them all running out to the fields of sugar¬ 
cane, and we follow in haste to see what is the matter. A 
great black cloud is coming rapidly toward us, and, as it 
gets closer, the buzzing noise which reaches our ears tells us 
that millions and millions of locusts form the cloud. Wav¬ 
ing the flags, and making greater noise than you and I have 
ever heard on our glorious “Fourth of July,” the natives 
are trying to scare them away, for if they should light in the 
sugar-cane the leaves would be entirely destroyed in a very 
few minutes. But the locusts do not like a noise, and we 
are very thankful when they have passed over our heads. 

Many feast days are kept in the Philippine Islands, 
but, strange to say, there is none which is recognized by all 
of them. Each village has its own feast days ; but we 
hope, before long, that they will all join with us in celebrat¬ 
ing our Christmas and our other holidays with as much spirit 
as we do ourselves. 

Hawaii. 

1 

On our way back to America, let us stop off for a short 
visit to the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islanders. 

You have learned in school, no doubt, that some time 
ag-o these people—another branch of the great brown family 
—became displeased with their rulers and asked for our 



234 THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 

protection. We gave it to them and they became our 
adopted children. Under the rule of this country, nearly all 
their old customs and habits of living have been changed. 
The children all go to school during the week and to church 
on Sunday ; but they are peculiar and different from us in 
many ways. Out in the country we still find them living in 
houses made entirely of grass. Their hut is a perfect bower, 
very beautiful among trees and flowers which, in America, 
we see only in hot houses. The only floor in these huts 
consists of the ground paved with stones ; the only furniture, 
if we can call it such, is a great number of mats, woven 
from grass, piled in the corner. These serve for beds, 
screens and couches. The roofs are made of a peculiarly 
bladed grass, carefully thatched and twisted so that no 
water can enter. 

The weather is like that of the Philippines, so warm all 
the year round that the natives live out of doors all day 
long. Their food is cooked out of doors, and they eat their 
meals sitting around in the shade. They still cling to their 
favorite food—a big bowl or caldron of steaming poi. The 
children dip their fingers in like so many “Jack Horners.” 
This poi is made from kalo, a root which grows in water, 
and is very carefully cultivated. The root is baked and then 
beaten out. The preparation of this food takes some time, 
as the beaten mass is very sticky and when “ pulped” must 
be left to ferment. They roll this sticky paste very skilfully 
around their fingers and never drop any of it, as we have 
shown in our illustration on a previous page. Besides this, 
they have forty kinds of fruit within easy reach, so they are 
not likely to starve. 

The little boys and girls are wonderful swimmers. 
They carry into the ocean a long piece of board about two 


THE KAJA, OR CARRIAGE OE PERSIA 

This is the common method of traveling in Persia. The cushions in these little rooms fastened on a donkey’s back make very comfortable riding place* 











PELOTA, THE NATIONAL GAME OF SPAIN 

The players, with their sickle-shaped baskets, hurl the ball swiftly against the top of the wall. A player 01* 
the other side must return it on the volley or first rebound , and never let it strike 

below the three-foot line on the wall. 









THE PHILIPPINES AND HAWAII 


235 


feet wide. With this they swim out beyond the heavy surf 
which breaks upon their white coast. It is wonderful how 
they balance themselves on this. Waiting- for a very large 
wave they swim hard and fly in to shore upon it like the wind. 
Some of them are able to kneel on this board, and even stand 
upon it, keeping their balance on a single wave as it dashes 
on. 

The children in Hawaii are more cheerful and playful 
than almost any others, and are generally laughing. Most 
of them can speak English, and are adopting our own games. 
The native “wild” children are few, and do nothing except 
idle away their time and run about when they are not attend¬ 
ing school. 

We might sum up their whole life by saying that they 
care for nothing, and take no trouble except in amusing them¬ 
selves. They are good-looking, and are all extremely fond 
of flowers, liking to deck themselves with many colored 
wreaths. They wear bright dresses, and are very sunny and 
pleasant in one of the sunniest and pleasantest climes in the 
world—a perfect paradise for children. 


I 


/ 


Alaska and the Eskimos. 


E shall now take a visit to one of the 
most interesting people in the world, 
the little Eskimos of Northern Alas¬ 
ka. We know that their land is 
covered with snow for nearly all the 
year, and it is so bitterly cold there 
that few of you could live in the way 
that they do. But the little Eskimo 
baby, strapped to his mother’s back, 
thinks there is a great deal to see as 
forthe first time he is allowed to look 
around on the wide stretches of snow 
and ice. There is not a sign any¬ 
where of anything like a house. His 
mother does not allow him to stay 
out long in the cold, for soon she crawls into what looks like 
a hole in the snow, and going along a dark tunnel, finally 
climbs up through a trap-door into the room where the family 
live. 



The walls are of snow, the roof is of snow, and a bench 
of snow around half of the room serves as the beds, for sev¬ 
eral families live together in this snow mansion. These 
houses, if we may call them by that name, are out of reach 1 

of the bitter wind. The only lamp consists of a hole dug out 

230 






ALASKA AND THE ESKIMOS 237 

with great labor in a stone. This lamp is a stove also, for it 
heats the room. The oil is obtained from the seal. 

When the baby enters this room his skin cap is not taken 
off, for he must keep this on day and night for a year at least, 
as it is tightly fitted to his head so as to make his forehead 
taper upward, which is looked upon as a great mark of beauty 
among the Eskimos. 

Baby Etu, as his mother calls him, must be taught to get 
used to the hardships and the cold that will be his through 
life, and very soon he is rolled in the snow for this purpose. 
When he was born there was a small dark spot on his back. 
In time this grew and spread over the boy’s entire body, 
making him yellow; but if we were to visit him to-day, we 
would see that a great deal of the yellow could be removed 
by the simple magic of soap and water, for he never takes a bath. 

You might think he was a rather unpleasant boy to know, 
but it is so cold that he really needs all the covering he can 
get, even if it is a cloak of grease and dirt. His first clothes 
are very different from ours. It takes his mother many 
weeks of constant work to make him his little suit. In the 
first place, he has long stockings of reindeer skin, the furry 
side next his body; then socks with the downy skin from 
eider-ducks; stout boots of seal-skin, with soles of thick whale^ 
hide, are drawn up over his hips in exactly the same way as 
his father’s and mother’s are also. 

The jacket is reindeer skin with a warm hood, which he 
draws over his head. He has no trouble with buttons, for 
there are none on his clothes and no pins, either. We won¬ 
der how he could get into his coat, but it is slipped on over 
his head. It seems strange to us that Etu’s boots could be 
water-tight, but his mother is such a wonderful seamstress 


238 ALASKA AND THE ESKIMOS 

that, with threads of deer sinews, she can sew them so tight 
that no drop of water can possibly enter. This is not easy 
to do and she has to use her teeth chewing the seams to keep 
them soft while she works. In that way in time her teeth are 
all worn out. 

The father and big brothers are out all day hunting seal 
and bear or reindeer to supply the family with food, and Etu, 
as he grows up, longs for the time when he can do his share. 
In the meantime, however, he has his indoor games, v hich 
please him just as much as your favorite toys please you. He 



DRIVING HIS TEAM OF DOGS. 


has a round ball made of sealskin which he t according to their 
rules, is to keep in the air by kicking it without using his 
hands, and how he does laugh! You would think that he had 
little to laugh at, yet travelers have said that the Eskimos 
seem always “on the grin.” The dogs would come to the 
opening into their home and he would never tire of trying to 
hit them with his little toys carved out of ivory, but they were 
always too quick for him. 


































ALASKA A NT) THE ESKIMOS 


239 


When he grows older he enjoys being tossed up to the 
ceiling in a blanket, in this way learning to keep his feet 
and stand erect as he shoots up and down in the air. Though 
the thermometer stands at sixty or seventy degrees below 
iero, he and his companions sometimes roll in the snow un¬ 
til they look like a ball of fur, and down the hill over and 
over they go to the bottom, and jumping up, shake off the 
dry snow, and laugh till they are out of breath. 

When he gets older still he plays another game. He 
has made for himself his first bow and arrows, and with a 
big cake of ice for a sled, and little targets placed in the 
snow on the way down the hill, he and his companions will 
start off, and, of course, the one who can hit the greatest 
number as he skims past wins the game. 

When only nine years old, little Etu starts off with his 
father fishing and shooting, but of course, only on quiet 
days, for it will be several years yet before he can manage 
his own boat. Long before he is able to do this, he begins 
to collect driftwood with which to make the framework, but 
when the time has come to build it he would be helpless 
without his mother. She takes the skins of seals and cuts 
away all the blubber and flesh from within, and then scrapes 
off the hair. The skin must be stretched, for Etu’s first 
boat must be without a wrinkle. 

After being sewed by his wonderful mother so that they 
are entirely waterproof, they are drawn tightly over the 
framework and across the top of his long, sharp-pointed 
boat, making the entire boat look like a big cigar, except 
that a small, round hole is left in the middle into which he 
can fit himself. He must have a special coat of fur which 
will entirely fill this opening, so that not a drop of water can 
get in. In this little kayak, as the Eskimo boat is called. 


240 


ALASKA AND THE ESKIMOS 


he. has to go out in waves and storms that would frighten us 
in a big boat, and the water is often dashed completely over 
him. So theie must be no danger of its getting inside. He 
has made his own strong paddle with two blades, and is 
already very skilful though only twelve years of age. 

A big hunt for seal has been arranged by his father and 
his friends, and Etu is to go along with them. His harpoon, 
a spear of wood pointed with bone or iron, is fastened to 



A GROUP OF WALRUS. 


a long cord of seal hide. If he should succeed in hitting a 
seal with this, and should hold on to the end of the cord, he 
might be dragged completely under water, so a buoy is fas¬ 
tened to the end, made, as everything else seems to be in 
this land, of sealskin. 

For a long time our party paddle without seeing a sign 
of any game, but at last Etu’s father succeeds in capturing 














































ALASKA AND THE ESKIMOS 


241 


( 

the first seal, then another long paddle is made without a 
find. At last Etu sees a brown head rising into view, he 
sits quite still; but as soon as it has sunk out of sight he 
paddles with all his might and main to that spot waiting for 
the head to rise again. The moment he does so, our little 
friend hurls his harpoon and buries it deep in the seal’s 
body. 

Quick as a flash the buoy is thrown overboard and Etu 
hastily paddles away from the enraged seal, which is splashing, 
around in the water in a very dangerous mood. Finally, as 
the seal’s motions grow less violent, Etu draws near and 
mercifully ends its struggles with his spear. How proud he 
is ! His father’s words of praise are the sweetest music he 
has ever heard. He asks permission to treat all of the 
party, which he does with much laughter. Several other 
seals are captured, and when they return home they find 
their wives and sisters waiting for them and glad to learn of 
Etu’s skill and success. 

At least once each year they are in danger of starving. 
The weather may become so terrible, and the wind so fierce, 
and the snow storms so blinding, that even the strongest 
men do not dare to go out in search of food, and the little 
supply which they have hid away may have been smelled by 
a prowling pack of wolves and stolen. In such times the 
poor Eskimos have even to chew on the skins of the seals 
in order to live. 

As soon as the snow storm comes to an end, Etu takes 
his favorite dog and goes on a hunt by himself; but the dog 
is not merely for company. With his keen nose he may 
smell a long way off the tiny opening into the home of the 
mother seal and its little baby. Etu is filled with joy when 
his dog with a yelp dashes straight for a little mound of 


242 


ALASKA AND THE! ESKIMOS 


snow which Etu had not noticed at all. Inside this home is 
a little room. The floor is of ice. In the middle is a hole 
into the water where the mother goes in search of food 
for her baby. Stealing up quietly he listens, and as soon 
as the splashing below is heard, he drives his spear through 
the roof, and a sharp tug at the cord which is fastened to it 
shows him that he has succeeded. After a short struggle 
he breaks into the little hut, and with a cry of delight hauls 
his victim out on the ice. He hurries home, not minding 
his frosted nose, thinking only of the happiness which his 
news will mean when he arrives. 

But Etu has yet to prove himself a man. A boy after ten 
years of age is not allowed to have anything to do with his 
little girl friends until he has killed a bear, and that is now 
his greatest wish. 

The polar bear, when he feels the cold winter weather 
coming, eats all he can get for weeks at a time, and then 
buries himself in a bank of snow to sleep through the long 
months of frost and snow. The mound of snow in which 
the bear sleeps is much larger than that of the seal, and 
when Etu first sees what he believes to be the home of a 
bear, he hurries away after his dogs, for without them, he 
could not hope to kill one of these huge animals. 

The dogs are as fearless as their young master. They 
tear through the roof and soon the bear is out, with all 
the dogs snapping at his heels, trying to keep his attention 
from Etu, who hastens to thrust his spear as deep as his 
strength will allow in the big furry body. Etu has brought 
several spears with him, and he has to be very active, for one 
blow from the huge paws would knock him senseless. Many 
times it would seem that he could not escape those fearful 
jaws; but the spear wounds are beginning to take effect, and 
at last the big creature falls dead. 


ALASKA AND THE ESKIMOS 



AN ESKIMO FEEDING HIS DOGS 































244 ALASKA AND THE ESKIMOS 

0 

Now, indeed, little Etu is a hero. He is made much of 
by his mother, but cares a great deal more for the simple 
praises of his father and big brothers, who have been heroes 
before him. 

As the weather gets warmer the family journey south 
ward. They leave their ice huts and live in tents made from 
seal skin. Well supplied with furs of all kinds, with seal oil 
and ivory tusks of the walrus, the Eskimos collect at the 
“ stations ” where traders come in their boats to exchange for 
these things the much needed copper kettles and tobacco. 
At these “stations” they stay for two or three weeks, and 
when not busy buying and selling, they spend their time 
dancing, singing, and story telling both day and night. 

If any stray books should be left by the traders, we 
fear that Etu and his brothers and sisters could not read 
them, for they have never been taught to read any language. 
It has been thought more necessary to teach the little girl 
how to help her mother, and the little boy how to hunt and 
fish in order that he may do his share in supplying the 
family with the food which is so hard to get. And thus it 
is that little Etu’s life is passed. It is very different, as you 
may see, from your lives, but the young Eskimo boys and 
girls have their hours of fun and frolic, and as for the cold 
which would make us all shiver, they grow so used to it 
that they mind it no more than we do the autumn winds. 
People can be happy anywhere, if they have warm hearts 
and healthy bodies. 



Cuba and Porto Rico. 


N OT far south of the United 
States lies the beautiful 
West India island of 
Cuba, in which, not many years 
ago, a war was fought between 
our soldiers and those of Spain. 
It was the cruel way in which 
the Spaniards treated the Cubans 
that brought on this war. When 
it ended, the Cubans were a free 
nation. 

Cuba, as you know, is in the tropical zone, and you 
should know that all peoples who live in hot climates have 
very much in common. Anywhere in the island we can find 
the tall, beautiful palms, the ebony and mahogany trees, 
and underneath them the creeping vines and bushes. We 
find our little neighbors are dark and sunburned, with dark 
hair and soft, black eyes. They are very fond of the beam 
tiful flowers which grow there so richly, and love their charm¬ 
ing island. 

They still speak the Spanish language, but English is 
now being taught in the schools, to which many of the little 
Cubans are going for the first time, so it will not be long be* 
fore they will be speaking our own language. 

2 45 


















































































































246 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO 


If we had visited Cuba before the war we would have 
found many big* sugar plantations, some more than a square 
mile in extent. Sugar-making* was stopped by the war, but 
it is now busily going on again. The owners of these big 
places live in houses which are very large and low. We ask 
what they are made of, for we have seen nothing like them 
in our own country. It is neither brick, nor stone, nor wood, 
but is called “ adobe .” This “adobe' is a mixture of clay 
and sand dried by the sun, which soon becomes hard, and 
is of a yellow color. 

We can see no glass in the windows, for it is so warm 
that glass would keep out too much air, so instead they have 
iron bars across the casements, and we must say that they 
seem like prisons to those who are not accustomed to them. 

In the long rooms within, chairs are not arranged in 
our home-like manner, but in two long rows opposite each 
other against the walls. 

We are fortunate to arrive at the time for cutting the 
sugar cane, for we are sure to find it very interesting. Over 
a hundred black men and women are working day and night 
chopping down the tall sugar canes with broad bladed 
swords called machetes. How high the canes are, reach¬ 
ing way up over our heads! Their leaves hang down from 
the stalks, and far up on each plant is a feathery white 
plume. When the stalk becomes yellow it is the sign that 
the cane is full of sap. The stalks are then cut down, load¬ 
ed on wagons, and drawn to the mill by small oxen. Nearly 
all of sugar-making in this age is done by machinery. 
The canes are crushed between big rollers, and the sap runs 
down into big buckets. 

As we watch the machinery the little negro who is car* 




CUBA AND PORTO RICO 


247 


lying the buckets gives us a stalk of cane to suck, for it is 
very sweet, and all of the Cubans, both old and young, like 
it as much as we do our sticks of candy. 

Sunday afternoon is a holiday for the busy workers, and 
we visit the quarters,” as the servants’ homes are called. 
Here we find a long row of huts, which we might call 
sheds, with roofs of thatched palm leaves. Chickens are run* 
ning around everywhere, and there seem to be as many pig¬ 
pens, with their grunting occupants, as there are huts. 

On this Sunday afternoon the negroes are decked in 
their best clothes and brightest colors. All the cheap jewel¬ 
ry which they have been able to buy is worn, and the girls 
are very proud as they strut around, reminding us of the pea¬ 
cock, that vain, silly bird, which is dressed so gorgeously in its 
many colors. 

Boys are playing ball, but their game is one that we do 
not understand. We cannot call it baseball, for it is nothing, 
like it. A man is beating wildly on a drum, and one pair of 
dancers after another are keeping perfect time to his music. 
Faster and faster they whirl round until exhausted. 

We notice two little children playing dominoes, and see¬ 
ing how handsome these are we wonder how they could have 
afforded to buy them; but they were made by the little picka¬ 
ninny, with his own hands, from the wood of an ebony tree. 
The little white points set in the dominoes have been care¬ 
fully cut from alligators’ teeth. 

The little blacks cannot read and write, and do not care 
at all for any kind of learning. Why should they want learn¬ 
ing, they argue, when they have plantations to satisfy their 
hunger and (we must say it) plenty of cigars to smoke, and 
hammocks to swing in. 


248 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



All the blacks were 
slaves not very long- ago, 
and the little boy who was 
playing dominoes has 
heard how his grand¬ 
father, when living hap¬ 
pily in Africa hunting the elephant and panther, and scaring 
away the monkeys from the cornfields, was captured one day 
with all his friends by some white men who took them in 
chains into a big boat, and carried them after a long and 
dreadful voyage to Cuba, where they were sold as slaves. 















































































































CUBA AND PORTO RICO 


249 



A few of these slaves in Cuba worked so hard and faith¬ 
fully that they were able to buy their liberty; but they were 
not all freed until many years after their black brothers in 
this country. 

Let us now visit another of these West India islands 
and see our little brothers and sisters of Porto Rico, and be 

sure to make them 
know how glad we 
are to meet them, for 
the Porto Ricans have 
now come among us 
as part of our own peo¬ 
ple. As we sail to¬ 
ward this beautiful is¬ 
land over clear, blue 
water, we may see a 
shoal of flying fish 
darting over the water 
pursued by a beautiful 
object. We are told 
that this is a dolphin, 
and as it glides rap¬ 
idly through the water, 
its black sides like 
burnished gold change 
porto rico. into many shades and 

tints of color in the sunlight. But the dolphin is hungry, 
and chases the flying fish for food, and when he reaches 
them he leaps upward and snaps them up one after another 

in his great jaws. 

Night comes suddenly in this climate and the sun disap¬ 
pears all at once. There is no long twilight such as we have. 











2 50 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO 


The stars come out with wonderful brilliancy, and the fireflies 
make it seem like fairyland to us. The sound of mandolins 
and singing comes from the servants’ quarters, and we walk 
over to look at them. The dancing- is very wild and exciting 
and makes one dizzy just to watch it. 

If we could understand Spanish, we would be greatly 
interested by the stories which they tell as they g-ather round 
in a big* circle. They have many tales of animals who could 
think and talk like human being's, and they never tire of 
repeating legends of their race in their old home in Africa 
before they were stolen to be sold as slaves. When the last 
story is ended, an old negro starts a song which he has not 
learned from books, but which has been handed down to him 
through centuries. It is a song about a beautiful star that 
has always seemed to be the friend and companion of these 
poor ignorant people. 

Although the warm climate of these islands brings 
beautiful flowers and trees, there are many things which come 
also with them which we would not like. We must 
certainly look under the bed at night, but not for burglars. 
There are scorpions and centipedes which creep into the 
house unseen, sometimes even into the beds. Their sting, 
though not fatal, causes great pain and suffering. Mosquitoes 
and fleas are always plentiful, and almost any night you 
might wake with an attack from hundreds of cruel little ants. 

But, curiously enough, there are no poisonous snakes in 
Porto Rico. In nearly all of the other West Indies the most 
deadly snake of the western world is found. It is called the 
fer-de-lance, and came to these islands on logs which drifted 
over from South America. 

We could not be persuaded to stay in Porto Rico 
during the summer months, for the most terrible torna- 


CUBA AND PORTO RICO 251 

does then may sweep over the islands, tearing - down 
houses, and causing the greatest damage. No one is 
safe unless he takes refuge in a cave in the rocks, and this 
reminds us that in this island there are many very wonderful 
caverns. The largest are up on the mountain slopes, and we 
enter through black openings in the rocks, and travel along 
a damp passage way. There are spiders in here and an 
army of bats fly over our heads, alarmed at our entrance. 

Once inside, we find ourselves in a vast fairy-like hall 
as beautiful as Aladdin’s palace. From the high roof 
hundreds of sparkling white pendants hang down within 
reach of our hands. They shine like the finest marble, and 
some are beautifully tinted in blue and green. Along the 
walls white columns rise from the floor to the dome, with 
delicate patterns worked on them by the dropping of water 
from above. These pendants or stalactites, are made by the 
water trickling through the rocks above and leaving particles 
of lime, which slowly makes its way downward. We can 
travel at least a mile underground, and here and there large 
holes seem to sink down into nothingness. If we were 
fastened to a rope and lowered into one of these, the wonderful 
stalactite formations would be all around us just the same. 
Underground rivers often dash through these caverns. ( 

We are now near the end of our round-the-world talk. 
We have been in all the lands where men and women live 
and looked upon their boys and girls at work and play, and 
have seen the many ways they have of passing their lives. 
And we have seen much of what the older folks, their fathers 
and mothers, do. It is not all fun and frolic; they have 
many troubles to meet and hardships to endure, but there is 
some share of happiness for them all. 


252 


CUBA AND PORTO RIOO 


And so let us, with s, smile and a word, of ^ood*byCj 
shake hands and part company, trusting that we may meet 
again in the pages of some other book, and be as good 
friends and comrades in the future as we have tried to be in 
the p^st. 





A 




















































































































